Forbidden
by Dracannia
Summary: Recruited to different sides, Charm has high hopes of getting back to Soundwave. But is he still what she believes? Does he still love her? SoundwavexOC
1. Charm

**In a nutshell, Autobot Alythia wanted me to make a remix story of her OC and Soundwave. The orignal story is Out of the Dark and Into the Light. Again, not my characters! She asked me to do this.**

* * *

Chapter I

_He was my heart, my soul, my spirit. We're separated, and I don't know what the time may have done to him. Does he still love me? Or does he think of me as an enemy because we have to be?_

Charm thought of this over and over in her head. The silver seeker missed Soundwave deeply and couldn't stop thinking about him since she last seen him. She graduated the academy along with him, but they were recruited to different sides of the war. Charm to the peaceful Autobots, and Soundwave to the brutal Decepticons. She felt like pounding whoever had set that up between them and beat their aft until it was gone from their visage. But there was no proof. She didn't even know if Soundwave _wanted _to be a Decepticon. The seeker missed him, all too much. Pit, she even missed those trouble-making twin cassettes of his! Though her own didn't seem to, especially Sky Light and Star, the two femmes of her Cassetteicons. All Frenzy and Rumble ever did when they were around was flirt and be obnoxious. Typical male, huh?

"Hel_lo_! I've said your name eight times!" Techno shouted to Charm. He was one of Charm's cassettes; dark green coloring with black stripes and light green optics to fit. On his shoulders were stereo speakers for whenever he felt like "getting down" or so he called it. "I'm trying to figure out what you're thinking. It's killing me!"

"You can tell?" Charm said, a little blush on her cheek.

"Duh, we're all connected to you." Techno pointed out to the other cassettes. Sky Light, her color matched her name perfectly; light blue, white, and some black thrown in there. She looked like a smaller version and a redeco of Charm. Her small wings didn't let her fly very far, though. Star, sometimes called as Sky Light's sister, was red and black with white optics shining brightly against her body color. She had wheels on the bottom of her feet and _loved _using them whenever she could. Shocker, the other mech of Charm's Cassetteicon family, was navy blue with yellow lightning stripes tattooed across his arms and legs with golden optics to match. Don't get me wrong, this guy was the most annoying of the bunch.

Some though it was strange for Charm, a lavender and silver seeker, to be carrying around Cassetteicons. But she didn't care. They were a gift from Soundwave, they were family now, and that's all she thought of.

"I was just thinking about Soundwave," Charm sighed. "What if he doesn't like me anymore? Worse, what if he doesn't _remember _me?" The seeker felt like she would go into a panic attack and start crying all over again. Techno sighed and climbed up to sit on her lap.

"We're still here for ya! That's gotta count as something, right?" He put on a cute little smile to try and cheer her up. Sky Light flew up and hovered near him.

"You're no help at all!" she said. "You're the one who reminds her of Soundwave the most, having those scrappy things on your shoulders."

"They are speakers and they're _cool_!" Techno defended himself.

"Wings are better than any old Bose system!"

Techno pressed a button on his chest and a single electric guitar note blasted, sending Sky Light backwards.

"Quit fighting," Charm groaned in an unconventional tone. She slumped so her elbows were pressed against her thighs and her head held up by the jaws with her hands. No one could tell if she was looking forward or straight with her lavender visor on. They didn't even know if her mouth was in a frown to show she was sad, or straight to say she was thinking; hidden by a facemask. This girl looked like a seeker that wanted to dress up as a femme Soundwave. "Can I be alone, please?"

"Why?" Shocker asked. Star began pushing the boys out of the room with Sky Light's help.

"It's chick drama," she said. "Do you want to be involved?" Charm didn't get to hear Shocker's reply as they walked out of the room. Charm sat with her back leaning forward and her hands holding up her head. She didn't even notice her arms getting numb, but if she did, she probably wouldn't care. Her mind was stuck on Soundwave, the Decepticon intelligence officer. Lucky him, he moved up in ranks. As for Charm, stuck down at soldier. She didn't mind it; she liked fighting. Scrap, she remembered those times when her and Soundwave used to spar together. She'd win in a split astro-second. Her leg would be on top of his back and she throw her fists on the air to her imaginary audience. But the real audience she had where the two-legged Cassetteicons of Soundwave's. They gave out boos and threw some solid energon at her, making it splash all over her paint. She'd get angry, Soundwave told her calm down, obey, then the big lug would hug her to see if it would help.

Right now she could feel those huge and strong arms wrapped around her. He was so warm, there was no way he could've been labeled a Decepticon. Again, who's the son of a glitch responsible for taking away her 'bot honey?

A call ringed in her antennas (which were kind of like Optimus Prime's) and located her hand to her ear to transmit. It wasn't a message specifically to her, it was more towards every Autobot in the cosmos.

"_With the All Spark gone, we cannot return life to our planet. And fate has yielded its reward; a new world to call home. We live among its people now, hiding in plain sight, but watching over them in secret, waiting, protecting. We have witnessed their capacity for courage, and though we are worlds apart, like us, there is more to them than meets the eye. I am Optimus Prime, and I send this message to any surviving Autobots taking refuge amongst the stars. We are here. We are waiting._"

Charm quickly located the coordinates to where the message was originated. She wanted so bad to meet up with her friends that it killed her! She didn't mind having her small family around, but it was usually irritating and seeing nothing but them was driving her insane as well. Maybe Jazz could cheer her up. She found the coordinates; Milky Way Galaxy, the Sol system. She went farther in. Earth, U.S.A., Mission City.

"Guys!" Charm shouted. Instantly, four little heads popped up from the crack of the door. "Pack your bags, we're moving to Earth!"

"Isn't that an organic planet?" Star said, kind of worried.

"What if we're seen?" Techno finished for his sister.

"Optimus Prime and his best 'bots are down there. Apparently the mission was successful and the All Spark is destroyed; Megatron can't get to it!"

"THANK YOU, PRIMUS!" Shocker yelled in the empty room, causing a louder-than-necessary echo. Sky Light slapped the mech over the head and shot him a glare.

"Well, let's get our titanium rears and gear and get lost!" Star said. Charm popped open her chest (like Soundwave does) and all four transformed to fit in. The first few times they had tried this, back when Charm first got them, they were squirming around the place, claiming spaces and didn't notice that they were tickling their mistress to death.

"Everyone good to go?" she said, turning into a Cybertronian jet. She heard a couple of cheers inside her body and took off into the black sky with the stars as their guide. "Next stop, planet Earth!"

xXx

Author's Note: Why, yes, it is based on the movie! But Soundwave is not the ROTF one. Sucks how he's stuck up there in space the whole movie, huh? Poor dude.


	2. Hearts

Chapter II

The whole time, Shocker kept repeating the question the universe was tired of hearing; "Are we there yet?" Charm felt some rumbling in her chest, telling her that Star was probably nudging the blue irritable mech. The seeker never had time nor patience to teach them real manners. Even so, she liked seeing these guys fight like children most of the day. What the heck am I talking about, they _are _children!

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

"No. Hey, wait! Yeah, no."

Shocker took a pause before he asked Charm again.

"Are we there yet?"

"SHUT UP ALREADY!" three other Cassetteicons chorused. Charm giggled and let them continue their verbal fight. Thank Primus they didn't try to get rough inside of her. About two more hours of hearing the cassettes bicker amongst one another and they finally made it to planet Earth. She located where Prime had sent the message. She was lowering her altitude when she was shot in the wing by a bullet.

"What the heck's happening?" Techno shouted in her head.

"_Unidentified aircraft, proceed to Hawthorne Air Base, or we'll have to force with ammunition._"

"That's what she was trying to _do_, nut brain!" Star screamed. Charm ignored her and lowered herself down to the base, escorted by two jet planes. When she landed, she was welcomed by a couple of jeeps, pouring out some humans in green uniforms and primitive guns.

"_Power down now and step out of the aircraft,_" said man over a bullhorn. Charm did as she was told and shut down here systems. She didn't dare transform. She knew what they were thinking; that she was a Decepticon. The 'bots Optimus had brought with him were ground vehicles and the humans were under the impression that Autobots couldn't fly at all, like it was a rule.

Four more cars showed up, but they had a different style, a different color than the jeeps.

"Captain Lennox, tell them to lower their weapons," said the voice of the Peterbuilt semi truck that Charm knew all too well that it was Optimus Prime.

"Put down your weapons, stand down!" shouted a man. His soldiers did as they were told and put their guns down.

"Don't be afraid, Charm," Optimus said. "They're not going to hurt you now."

"Thanks, Prime," she answered, transforming. The men backed up a bit and almost raised their guns again when Lennox gave the same instruction. Her chest popped open to release the Cassetteicons. They stretched a bit and breathed in the clean Earth air. They saw a boy step out of the yellow Camero and shiver.

"Like the freak that jumped me," he sighed, his eyes wide with terror.

"Does he know us?" Techno said to his brother. Shocker only shrugged. "Yo, name's Techno!" He held out his hand as he walked towards the boy. The human looked up at Optimus and the red and blue 'bot nodded his head.

"I'm-I'm Sam," he said with a squeak in his voice. He shook hands with the green cassette, not taking his eyes off his face.

"Good ta meet ya!" Techno said, Sam not really believing him.

"Officers, this is Charm," Optimus announced. The silver seeker gave a shy wave and put her hands behind her back. "She's not a Decepticon, like Starscream. She's a fully designated Autobot."

"You sure?" Sam said, a sense of urgency in his voice.

"This guy would leak in his pants if we told him we were Decepticons!" Shocker whispered to Techno. The brothers laughed and Sky Light gave them both a shove. She put a finger to her lips and looked back up at Optimus.

"I take it that you received my message, Charm?" he said. Charm gave a quick nod, afraid of whatever she would say, even if it was simple, that someone would open fire. "Are there others besides you and your Cassetteicons?"

"No, sir," Charm said, not caring anymore. "We didn't see anyone as we passed." She looked over at Sam. He was still looking like a scared animal and knew what would ease him. She removed her face mask and the visor, then took another look. His shoulders were slumped down and his eyes changed from urgent to "okay, nice to meet you." Her guess was that coverings such as hers made him a bit tense.

"Charm, I would like you to meet Sam, a human that made the victory in the war possible," Optimus continued. He motioned his hand towards the boy and Charm squatted down. She gave a cute smile and he smiled back with a little laugh added.

"Hi," he said.

Charm's smile got bigger. "Hi!"

"And this is Bumble-"

"I have already met Bumblebee, sir," Charm announced. "We go way back." She looked at the yellow car as it transformed. "Hello, 'Bee."

"_Hello, baby!_"

Okay, that was weird. "How come you're talking like that?"

"His audio processor is still in need of repair," said the Hummer ambulance car, changing into an old 'bot. "He uses radio frequencies from the humans to speak."

"Oh, you poor thing," Charm whined as she gave him a hug.

"_What are _you _sorry for?_"

"Can't the girl be sarcastic?" Star said, crossing her arms. Bumblebee shot her a look and Charm let go.

"Let me guess, you were being sarcastic, too?" she said. Bumblebee nodded his head. The seeker turned her head and gave Star a look that included a raise in the optic ridge. Star put her hands behind her back and her head slumped down, showing she wasn't going to say anything more.

"This, Charm, is Ratchet," Optimus spoke. "Our medical officer. And this-" He motioned to a shifting Monroe truck. "-is Ironhide."

Sam crossed his fingers and whispered mostly to himself as if speaking to Charm. "Don't fall for it, don't fall for it, don't fall for _it_." The last word he sang. Ironhide held the cannons on his arms forward and pointed to Charm. The silver seeker took a stance that was ready to jump and come back down on him.

"Looks like I can't scare you," he smirked.

"Try harder!" Charm giggled, letting go of the pose. She didn't want to tell Ironhide that she already knew him as the one who scared newbies with his cannons. She had known that since the academy and the black mech sort of built up a reputation about it. She looked around. She remembered specifically that Optimus had four men with him when he left.

"Where's the fifth?" she asked.

"We're using the last of the All Spark to try and bring him back to life," Ratchet said. "We need to reattach his body before we merge him with the Spark's power."

Charm slouched. Jazz was one of her best friends back in the day. He was one of those slick and smooth mechs that all the girls fell head over stabilizing servos for. Now he's dead? Quit it! The doc said he'd come back, believe it, girl!

"_Let's get outta here!_" Bumblebee said through his radio. He transformed and the tires squealed as he exited the air space.

"Charm, we are to head towards Tranquility, Nevada," Optimus instructed. "Meet us at Sam's. Bumblebee will leave his frequency open for you."

"Thank you, sir," Charm said. She had a thing for respect when it came to her superiors. The Autobot leader transformed with the rest of his team to roll out. Charm gathered up her cassettes and turned into her Cybertronian jet form, not having enough time to get an Earth disguise. Shocker kept complaining about being stuffed back into her body, the girls were yelling at him to shut up, and Techno was already downloading Earth songs into his system. Charm gave a smirk and flew around for a bit in circles so she wouldn't get ahead of Bumblebee. She saw some humans below her point towards her and gaze. No wonder Prime and the others chose Earth forms to get around. She felt a little uncomfortable being looked at all the time.

Finally, she sensed Bumblebee's signal stop and she flew straight-forward towards it. Her body parts shifted around as she floated over the small house and landed safely in the backyard. A short balding man, who she found out to be Sam's dad, was yelling at her.

"Get off my grass!" he said.

"Dad, where else she supposed to stand, huh?" Sam said, coming out from the house. "Her feet are your size, where else is she supposed to stand?"

"The road, for all I care."

"You kidding me? You want a swarm in front of the house? That's why we meet in the back yard." He looked at Charm. "Sorry about my dad. He gets touchy about his grass."

"Yeah…" Charm sighed, finally realizing what grass actually was.

"Prime will be here soon. Look cute." Sam walked back inside with his dog, Mojo, following behind but still looking back to bark at Charm. The silver seeker let out a terrible growl and the Chihuahua ran inside. Charm giggled and heard her family inside her laugh as well.

"That's right, run, fool!" Techno shouted. There was an awkward silence as they were focusing on that sentence.

"_What _did you say?" Star said.

"Get with the lingo, girl," Techno replied. "You gotta learn it if you're going to survive on this planet."

Charm didn't have the guts to say it out loud, but Techno was right. What if she messed up even once? What would the humans do? She shook her head to try and get the thought away and bring in a positive one. Everything would be okay. She was sure of it.

Optimus Prime rolled up into the backyard and shifted into his powerful two-legged form. Charm snapped her hand to her head as he approached.

"At ease, Charm," he said, voice calm and cool. The seeker put her hands back to her sides and waited for her commander to speak. "I need to know, and I need to know now. If Soundwave ever comes to Earth, will you fight him?"

Charm didn't know what to say. Her shoulders dropped in shock and her mouth popped open. Soundwave was working on the status of being her boyfriend last time they'd seen each other. How was she supposed to answer that? She was going to say something when he held up a hand.

"It was just a question," he said. "You don't have to fight him, we'll have Bumblebee do it."

"No! I…" She stopped to think of her final answer. "I think…I believe I can do it!"

"Good, because he's close."

Charm's entire face, though he couldn't see it, became shocked. "Where?" she said, almost a demand.

"A few miles outside the outskirts. Are you sure you can handle him?"

"Yes, sir!"

"Good, transform!"

Optimus shifted into his Peterbuilt truck while Charm jumped up into the air and changed into her Cybertron jet. She lifted off higher into the sky and looked for any Decepticon signals. Five of them; Soundwave and his "kids".

Charm's spark rate must've increased thirteen fold. She had _just _got here and Soundwave pops up. What were the odds of that happening? The cassettes were moving wildly inside her and telling her not to fight him. The seeker felt like she didn't have much of a choice. She told Prime that she was able to fight Soundwave, and she would never lie to her superior. She felt now that she should've taken some real time to think about this. What if Soundwave truly did forget her? Her spark would burst of sadness.

Soundwave felt the Autobots closing in, three of them to be specific. He was here to look for a piece of the All Spark that was rumored to be destroyed to bits, and he and his cassettes were already tearing up a few patches of the ground to search for tiny little parts of it. Rumble had already found a few along with Frenzy, Laserbeak stayed watch in a high tree, and Ravage was the best at this scavenger hunt; twenty small pieces.

"Hold it right there, Decepticon," Optimus Prime said as he drove up and transformed. Another car pulled up and shifted into a yellow mech, but the last one, a seeker femme. Was she familiar in any way?

"Lord Megatron shall rise again," Soundwave said in his regular monotonic voice. Charm stood behind Prime, remembering how sexy she always found that voice. "You will pay for eliminating him. Rumble, Frenzy, attack!"

"Techno, Shocker, get out here!" Charm yelled, popping open her breast plate and sending out a green and a blue mech, both Rumble and Frenzy's size. They went into an all-out force against each other, but it was obvious they were faking it. For once, Rumble didn't fall back far enough whenever he got punched and Shocker didn't have his game face on. Soundwave found this odd and lunged at the femme. She jumped up into the air and Soundwave fell into the ground. He got up quickly than Charm ever remembered and pinned her back to the ground.

"I thought only Decepticons had cassettes such as mine," he said. His face seemed so close to hers. He was inspecting her visage and an automated laugh emerged. "You even look like me_!_"

Charm used her legs to push against his chest and spring him back from her body. She stood up and waited for the intelligence officer to do the same. Another creepy laugh.

"I must know you from somewhere," he said. "Who else would try to mimic me?"

_I knew it…_Charm cried in her thoughts. _He doesn't remember…_

"What kind of face is behind that mask?"

"What's behind yours?" Charm snapped back. She tried to make him remember by all those comebacks she did when they sparred together. It didn't work. But the one thing different about Soundwave was the darkness in his voice and he was faster than the day they graduated. And, ooh, that strength was _definite _improvement!

"What's wrong, girl?" he chuckled. "The Autobots didn't give you training on how to handle a Decepticon?"

Now Charm felt it. Soundwave had changed with the times. He was dark, mysterious, more superior. This wasn't her Soundwave.

"Primus, I don't have the strength," she whispered to her god. "I don't want to fight him. Please…"

"Are you _crying_?" Soundwave laughed again. "Obviously you are weak. What makes you think you can come against me?"

"I can't," Charm said, more loudly than she thought.

"Smart femme." His voice, it was more of a purr.

"Charm! Get him!" Optimus shouted, trying to grab the All Spark pieces from Ravage. The black cat kept clawing and biting at the red and blue mech and spun around whenever he sensed the yellow one near his prize. "Don't stand there, you can do it!"

"I can't!" Charm whined.

"Yes you can!" Optimus shouted. "You convinced me you could go up against Soundwave, now do it!"

"I can't do it!"

"Leave her alone, Prime," Soundwave said. Charm could tell that behind that face mask was an evil smirk. One she never saw and never wanted to see. "If she doesn't want to battle, she doesn't have to. None of you could find a way to beat me."

"_Yes we can_!" Bumblebee said through a recording of Barrack Obama's speech. He left Optimus to deal with the cat and bird to battle Soundwave for Charm. He came at his side, but Soundwave already spotted him and ducked from the swing. From there, Soundwave took his right fist and punched the yellow mech in the tank. Bumblebee released a static gag and leaned over, holding his mid-section. Soundwave interlaced his fingers and brought a double fist onto the Camero's backside and he fell down to the ground. Soundwave held him there with a leg servo and looked back at Charm.

"You see?" he said. "Not even one of Prime's best could get to me."

"No…" Charm gasped. She looked over to Rumble, Frenzy, Techno, and Shocker. Now they were standing still and looking at the drama scene.

"What are you doing?" Soundwave shouted to his minions. "Fight!"

Rumble shook his head lightly and Frenzy only stood still.

"Do as I command. Attack the Autobots!"

Again, they stood still as ice sculptures. Soundwave growled and looked back over to Charm. If the mask and visor were gone, she'd be even more scared than she truly was.

"Ravage, gather the fragments. Fall back!" Soundwave took his foot off of Bumblebee's back and transformed into a Corvette ZR-1. His hood opened up to gather Rumble and Frenzy while Ravage took the All Spark pieces while Laserbeak kept getting into Optimus Prime's face to distract him. Soundwave drove off, leaving Charm shivering cold when she shouldn't be. It was summertime, wasn't it?

"Charm!" Optimus shouted once Laserbeak flew away. "Why didn't you attack?"

"I…I couldn't do it…" she choked. Techno and Shocker walked over and hugged her on either leg. Like Techno had said before, they were connected. They felt the pain she had and even her spark beat pounding inside of their heads.

"He doesn't remember…" she gasped. Optimus sighed as he helped Bumblebee off the ground.

"I didn't expect him to," he said. "I want you to be sure next time you give me an answer about battling. It's critical I know."

"Yes, sir…"

"Good. Let's roll on home." Optimus and Bumblebee transformed and drove back to Tranquility. Charm stood there with her two mechs hugging her legs and her two femmes crying inside.

"That big jerk!" Star cried. "How can he not remember you? You're irresistible!"

Charm gave a weak laugh. "Yeah, thanks. All right, guys, let's get on home." She opened her breast plate to let Techno and Shocker back inside. Once they were safely inside, Charm took another look at where Soundwave had disappeared. "He's in there somewhere…my Soundwave. I just know it."

xXx

Author's Note: Thought it'd be more dramatic if Soundie didn't remember.


	3. Sparring

Chapter III

"So, how'd the fight go?" Sam asked as Optimus and Bumblebee rolled up.

"_We came, we saw, we kicked it's ass!_" Bumblebee replied. Sam looked to Optimus for a real answer. The Autobot sighed.

"We couldn't get the fragments fast enough, and Charm was frozen when she saw Soundwave."

"What, he scare her or something?"

"More like she knows him," Ironhide said behind Sam, making him jump. "I've seen her around the academy back in the days before the war. They spent most of their time together, I was starting to wonder if they already merged."

"If they what?"

"_Don't bother_," Bumblebee answered for him. Sam had to think about it for a bit and finally understood what Ironhide really meant. He scratched his head and tried to change the subject a bit.

"Where _is _Charm anyway?" he said.

"She might be cooling off," Optimus said. "Let's just give her some time to be alone."



Charm sat over the cliff edge and all of her cassettes were out playing behind her. She looked up at the blue sky. You couldn't find that view on Cybertron. It hurt that Soundwave didn't remember, otherwise he'd be here by her side again and look at the clouds with her. A thought entered her mind that what if every Decepticon undergone the same transformation? First they were fun, warm, peaceful. Then they change and become dark, homicidal, uncaring maniacs. How many other broken sparks were out there besides hers?

"Charm, quit being so bummed out!" Sky Light said. "When you're down, _we're_ down!"

"Get over here and do something!" Shocker said. He looked over at Techno. The green 'bot searched his system for a song and landed on _Fire Burning_. The Cassetteicons jumped around and used the news dance moves they learned. Sky Light tugged on Charm's antennas.

"Come on, Charm!" she whined. "Do something fun!"

Charm turned around and flashed her vampire-like teeth and hissed. Sly Light backed away and the music stopped. The silver seeker turned back around and slumped some more.

"I can't stop thinking about him," she said. "Today he didn't even seem like the Soundwave I knew. I wonder what got into him to make him so…so…"

"Destructive?" Star's guess.

"Violent?" Techno's guess.

"Vindictive?" Shocker's guess.

"Yeah, that," Charm said, letting their choice fill in the blank.



Soundwave stood still near the edge of the wall at the Decepticon base, outside of Earth's moon. Skywarp and Thundercracker were having a drinking contest to see who would pass out or binge first. Rumble and Frenzy were cheering on different sides; Frenzy to Thundercracker, Rumble to Skywarp. Once you heard them, they sounded like coaches in training.

"Come on, you call that a swallow?" Rumble said, standing on Skywarp's shoulder. "Keep drinking!"

"He's fadin' out. I can see it!" Frenzy said to Thundercracker. The blue jet didn't want to admit it, but he was feeling a little nauseous himself. He looked at Skywarp through tripled vision.

"Ready to knock out?" he groaned.

"Nah, nah…" Skywarp burped. "I'm 'onna prove you ain't the only one who can…(belch)…win a contest…Aw, slag!" Skywarp held a hand to his mouth. Thundercracker chuckled deeply.

"Remember that slime monster we faced in Sector Fifteen," he teased.

"Stop…urk!"

"How long did it take to get every piece of that nasty goop out again?"

"Stop it! You're doin' it on purpose…Oh…no!" Skywarp held his mouth tightly.

"No!" Rumble yelled. "Don't let him get to you! He's trying to make you--"

Too late. Skywarp turned towards the side and whatever he had consumed in the last few hours came out onto the floor.

"--throw up…" Rumble finished. Skywarp put his head on the table.

"Clean up in aisle seven…" Skywarp trailed off and fell asleep on the table.

"Thank Primus," Thundercracker moaned. He got up as Frenzy jumped off his shoulder and walked to his room. On his way, he grabbed a bucket, just in case.

Soundwave shook his head. Such an immature way to prove one's strength. It was a tough challenge, true, but it was still childish. Frenzy and Rumble started a verbal fight about the contest and Soundwave knew he would never hear the end.

He looked in anther direction, out to the stars and out to Earth. The blue Decepticon kept thinking about the femme he encountered outside the town the Autobots resided. She looked almost like him, but was made from someone who created seekers. Not to mention the strange behavior from Rumble and Frenzy when they were up against her own Cassetteicons. They would usually act crazy and do anything for a fight. Instead, they stood side by side with the green and blue cassettes. And not only that, there was something about the femme that made him feel something that was lost in his body for a long time. His spark had skipped a few beats and warmth grew inside. He tried to remind himself over again where his allegiance lied and continue to laugh at how weak the girl was. Somehow her looks kept bringing back that strange feeling. But she was an Autobot! A do-gooder, so weak, so frail, so…so damn _hot_.

"Thundercracker egged him! If he hadn't, Skywarp would've totally won!" Rumble shouted.

"You're just jealous because you can't win anything," Frenzy said.

"Slag-head!"

"Mud flap!"

"That's _it_!" Rumble lunged across the table at his brother and tackled him down to the floor. The two rolled around, trying to hurt the other.

"Watch it!" Frenzy said. "We're too close to-- (squish)--Skywarp's mess…Ugh!"

"I won't eat for a week!" Rumble stood up, shaking off the chunky purple barf. Frenzy shivered and stood up.

"I'm gonna need therapy after this…"

Soundwave was laughing inside, really. He watched as the two walked off to the cleaning room. Ravage was sitting across the room with Laserbeak, giving a coughing snarl that was supposed to be a laugh. Laserbeak's laugh sounded like a broken squawk.

"Such children," Soundwave groaned. "Why did I even bother in the first place?"



"Charm, for the love of Primus, get up!" Star shouted.

"I'm still depressed…" the seeker whined. Star looked over to her mistress' face. She couldn't tell with the face mask and visor how sad she really was.

"Well, can you be depressed some other time? We gotta get back to Tranquility and find you a disguise, at least."

"No."

"What if I told you they were Prime's orders?"

"Fine." Charm stood up and called in her cassettes. She transformed and flew off to the nearest sir base. People had scattered to places to make room for her as she landed. Sky Light and Techno popped out without an invitation and looked around at the fighter planes.

"I like that one," Sky Light said, pointing to an F-22 Raptor.

"No way! Look at that one over there!" Techno moved his arm out towards a B-2 Spirit. "Now _that's _a trend!"

"I don't think so," Charm said, already searching the Internet inside her CPU. "That thing costs _way _too much money and it'd be weird to see it in the sky. I'll stick to the Raptor." She walked over to it and started scanning. Techno crossed his arms.

"Still a cool look," he grumbled. Charm finished her scan and shifted into her new form to try it out. She took off to the sky and tested it out. She took a few sharp turns to try out its agility and tried out the speed. And for show, some twists and flips. She landed back down on the base and received a few applauds from the humans. She bowed down to amuse them and smiled back at her two cassettes.

"Brilliant, milady," Techno said.

"That was so cool!" Sky Light cheered. Charm giggled and brought them back into her chest. She took off again and flied as fast she could. A static sound came into her antennas and she turned them on.

"Hello?"

"_Hello, my dear_."

"Soundwave?" she choked.

"Don't listen to him!" Star shouted.

"What--What do you want?" Charm continued.

"_I was hoping to meet you a few miles outside of Tranquility. What do you say_?"

"I…Yes!" Charm said with hope in her voice. "Leave your signal open, I'm coming!"



Soundwave laughed at how gullible this girl was. By the sound in her voice, she was coming alone, just as he planned. What kind of Autobot would fall for such an easy Decepticon trap? He looked at Rumble and Frenzy, trembling beside him.

"Sir? I don't know why, but…I don't think we should fight them," Rumble said shyly. Soundwave growled and the little blue 'bot took a step back. "There's something about that girl and her cassettes. Can't you sense it?"

"All I know is she is just an Autobot who'll get in my way," Soundwave answered. "I plan to eliminate her before she does anything more to me."

"Anything more?" Frenzy repeated. "What did she do?"

"That is none of your concern."

"Of course not…"

The intelligence officer heard the sound of jet turbines and looked to the sky. A silver and lavender Raptor fighter plane was on its way. It lowered a few meters before him and transformed into the Autobot. Her face mask was off and only her wide, white smile was shown.

"Hey, big guy," she said, a flirtatious tone in her voice. Soundwave felt a shiver go up his spine, but shook his head to ignore it.

"IT'S A TRAP!" Rumble shouted. Soundwave kicked the 'bot aside and ran at Charm. The seeker lifted into the air and let Soundwave fall into the ground once again. He stood up and looked at the hovering Autobot.

"Get back here!"

"Not until you remember who I am!" Charm said, purple tears in her eyes.

"You are the Autobot I faced earlier, now land!"

"Say my name!"

"What?"

"What is my name?!"

"I do not know it!"

Charm yelled in both fury and depression. Soundwave had been brainwashed by the blackness of the Decepticon side. He was her enemy, no longer a friend. She dove down towards him in rage.

"Now we are getting somewhere!" Soundwave laughed. He put his legs apart and waited for the attack. She pushed him down so his back was to the ground and tried to figure out what to do. Knowing the femme wasn't going to do anything, he rolled her over so he was on top and pinned her arms to the dirt. Charm choked and looked at Soundwave's red visor. She remembered back when those eyes were filled with love whenever he gazed at her. Now there was hate.

"I am glad you did not end up on the Decepticon side," he said.

_Ditto_, Charm cried in her thoughts.

"You would have died in your first battle," he continued. Charm thought for a second of what her next move would be. She had gotten out of situations like this whenever she fought, but with Soundwave it was…Wait. That's it!

Charm gave a wicked smile and noticed the change behind that red visor. She pushed him back with her legs and jumped on him. She pounded on his chest a few times, making it harder for him breathe and move. She turned him over so his back was towards her and held him down by the arms. Soundwave struggled like a fish and gave up when he accepted the fact she was stronger than him.

"A change, my dear?" he said, trying to get her off-guard.

Charm leaned towards his audio receiver. "Just sparring," she chuckled.

"You are such a child," he growled.

"I'm the child that kicked your aft! I would suffocate you right now, but like I said, I'm only sparring with you." She jumped off of him and took off to the air. Soundwave groaned as he stood up and watched the seeker fly back to Tranquility. The girl was _sparring_? Was there ever a time when he had sparred? It seemed familiar when she said it…and even did it.

xXx

Author's Note: Hmm! Little suspicious there, _big guy_?


	4. Memories

Chapter IV

"You lost to a girl!" Frenzy laughed, along with his brother. Soundwave glared at the two, but they weren't scared. They fell backwards and kicked their legs out to get the laughter out. Soundwave was standing up straight and, if anyone had the chance to see, he was blushing with embarrassment. The girl have had to outsmart him in some way. She caught him by surprise; that was one. She even said with that cool voice that she was only sparring…That smooth voice, matching her exterior. Primus, why did he feel like this?! He never wanted anything to do with fem-bots and certainly didn't want to start now. But she was so beautiful, so strong when she put him under the impression that she was weak. The sun shining off her silver body like she was brand-new.

_But she is an Autobot!_ Soundwave repeated that in his head, but it didn't work anymore. Every time he thought of her, that warm feeling came back to haunt him. How long would he feel like this? He wanted to kill her and just be over it! But if he had killed her, he knew for sure that he would feel dead as well. That Autobot was now too precious for him to lose.

"Cybertron to Soundwave. Come in, Soundwave!" Frenzy shouted in his ear. The big blue 'bot shoved the red cassette off his shoulder and looked down at him.

"Where'd you go, big guy?" Rumble said.

"None of your concern," he replied.

"Nothing's in our concern anymore, is it?" Frenzy whispered to Rumble. The blue 'bot shrugged.



Charm landed in the middle of the park. Not caring how many people gasped and pointed and tried to get their relatives to come look. She was too busy thinking about what Soundwave might be going through. She saw that look in his hidden face (she had a talent for that) and knew that something had found its way back into his CPU. She let out her cassettes and they ran around giving high-fives. Charm sat back in the grass on the side of the hill and enjoyed her time.

"You kept your cool, girl!" Techno cheered. "I'm so proud of you!"

"I'm just glad that I at least gave him a hint of what he forgot," Charm laughed.

"Yeah, maybe it'll come back to him now!" Sky Light cheered. "That'd be so great if the next time you saw him he would want to hug you again!"

"Don't get any high hopes now," Star instructed. "That was only a small hint. You can't make someone remember right there and then."

"I so wish you were wrong," Sky Light said a bit grumpy.

"Charm!" said a gruff voice behind her. Charm turned around to see Ironhide, driving up to her. "I picked up your signal and it was near Soundwave's. Are you alright?"

"That's pretty sensitive for a guy like you," Star teased. Ironhide growled at her, making the red and black cassette step back. The black truck looked back to Charm for an answer.

"I'm fine, 'Hide," she said. "Thanks for caring."

"What happened?"

"Eh, nothing much. Just a bit of sparring."

"Sparring?" Usually you would spar only if both agreed to do it. Soundwave, as far as Ironhide knew, would never agree to a match like that.

"Just a hint for him. For some reason he totally forgot who I was." Charm felt her face drop and wondered if Ironhide was going to say any more. He didn't have to say anything. He sat down next to her and put his arms around her, giving her a hug.

"Ironhide and Charm, sittin' under a tree!" Shocker sang. "M-E-R-G-I-N-G!"

"Shut your trap!" Ironhide snapped. Techno and Sky Light pushed the blue cassette aside and tried to keep him quiet. It was kind of difficult to shut up Shocker.

"Is he always like this?" the black truck asked.

"All the time," Charm sighed. She leaned her head over to his chest and could hear his spark beat and speed up about five or ten more miles. He was warm, very warm, but didn't give her the comfort Soundwave used to give. The seeker remembered how the black truck never had a girlfriend in a while, ever since he was separated from Chromia. Poor, tough, teddy-bear…

"So, to try and get him to remember, you sparred with him?" Ironhide broke the silence.

"We used to spar whenever we could, and I always won."

"Did you win?"

"Pit _yeah_!"

"That-a girl!" Ironhide hugged her tighter. Any more and the seeker would be crushed! "Do you think he got the message? Do you think he remembers you now?"

"I'll check the next time I see him. Changing the subject here, but how's Jazz doing?"

"We're almost there," Ironhide grumbled, letting go of the hug. "A few more stitches and he'll be ready for the All Spark. Or so says Ratchet…Speak of the devil."

Ratchet rolled up in his alt form, wondering why the seeker and weapon specialist were sitting so close together. There was no sign of any internal heat from neither of them, so he pushed the thought away. Actually, what Ratchet was doing was going towards a fire, to get any burned humans out and take them to the hospital. Ironhide had thought that he would stop and try to hose him and Charm down from being so close. He was just lucky the ambulance car was busy.

"I guess I'll leave you alone now," Ironhide grunted, standing up. "You'll be okay without me? You won't get into trouble?"

"You think I could get into trouble?" Charm said, a smirk on her face.

"That's exactly what I mean." With that, the Monroe truck transformed and left the seeker to her cassettes, who were still teasing her about the hug.



Back at Decepticon base, Rumble and Frenzy went around humiliating Soundwave for his loss to a femme. Skywarp got the most fun out of it, Thundercracker snickered, and Starscream went about something of superiority, and was mad at Soundwave entirely. For years Soundwave hadn't lost to Autobots, and now he loses to an Autobot _femme _of all things.

"_How _can you _lose _to a _girl_?!" Skywarp emphasized. "That's like getting whacked with a stick!"

"How tough was she, really?" Thundercracker smirked. "Any bulk at all?"

"No, no, this chick was scrawny as pit," Rumble laughed. "That fight didn't even last for five minutes and she already had him pinned."

"Honestly, Soundwave," Starscream muttered, "you're a disgrace."

That was Soundwave's "do not push" button and pounced on Starscream, hitting him several times at his cockpit. Skywarp and Thundercracker were immediately at his side and pulled him off their fellow seeker. The blue 'bot struggled to be let go and eventually they did. He ran towards Starscream again, but the air commander was fast enough to blast Soundwave in the chest before he got to him. It wasn't that hard of a blast; just enough to make him back off.

"That's quite enough," Starscream said. "Soundwave, you better have a good reason for losing to an Autobot female."

Again, more snickers from Skywarp.

"She caught me off-guard, sir," Soundwave answered. He was thinking by addressing him as "sir" would get him off his chest for a while (there was no way in Pit he was going to say "Lord"), but the temporary leader wasn't phased.

"That is _not_ an excuse. Decepticons have become off-guard to femmes before, but they still attack. What makes this one any different?"

A small whimper came from Frenzy, but Rumble shut him up before he could say anything. Starscream and Soundwave had looked to find the blue cassette's hand over the red one's. He gave a shy smile and whispered to Frenzy. Starscream looked back to the officer and Soundwave did the same.

"Next time, I want you to kill that girl, understood?" he growled. Soundwave choked up. How could he? He had just considered that Autobot as one he didn't want to destroy. If he killed her, he'd kill himself just to be with her.

"Yes, Starscream," Soundwave said. If anyone could ever tell in his monotone voice, he was filled with angst. Sure he had killed an Autobot femme once or twice in his Decepticon career, but this one was different somehow. This one gave him comfort, made him feel more important than he thought, and kept him calm whenever he thought of her.

And didn't even know her name.

"Good. I'll see to it tonight," Starscream continued. "We attack Tranquility in six mega-cycles."



Charm laid down on her recharge berth at the Autobot warehouse Sector Seven was happy to give. But she was having a little trouble going into stasis. For one reason, Shocker snored so loudly it gave her a head-ache. The second reason, she wasn't so sure about, but it was something to do with the hint she gave to Soundwave. It was such a small hint, she thought of thinking up of a better one. There was an idea, but it was hardly the chance that Soundwave would willingly hug her anymore. What else was there? It couldn't be something playful, like some of the jokes she used to tell. It seemed that sparring was the only way to go from here. She was grumpy about it and the madness wouldn't go away.

Another reason was Ironhide. He must've been playing around with his guns or something in the next room; all she could hear was rattling and sometimes one fell and Ironhide would give out a Cybertronian curse. Being curious, Charm stood up quietly, stretched out a bit, and walked over to the weapons room next door. Sure enough, Ironhide was in there, loading up the guns and checking the swords.

"Can't sleep?" she said. The voice caught the black truck off-guard and the sword he held clanged to the floor. "Sorry."

"It's alright," Ironhide chuckled. "I didn't expect anyone to still be up at this time."

"Neither did I," Charm sighed. "What are you doing in here?"

"Well, it's true, I couldn't go into stasis," he confessed. "So I thought I'd spend some time in here and tinker with a few things. Holy Primus, I'm starting to sound like Wheeljack!"

Charm giggled, remembering the crackpot back in the day. That guy would rather spend his time inventing and "fixing" than being out with any femmes like the rest of his friends.

"What are _you _doing up?" Ironhide said as if he was interrogating.

"Shocker kept snoring," Charm said, giving the half-truth. "Then I heard you scatter around in here and…well, I don't what I'm doing here."

"Lonely?"

"I guess."

An awkward silence that Ironhide broke by loading up a few more cannons. Charm watched as he worked and he seemed a little tense when she was looking. He fumbled around a bit and he looked as if he was trying to so hard to load the guns perfectly, like he was impressing Chromia all over again. She replaced it with the thought that he just practicing for it and spoke up.

"Thanks for the hug," she said, not really knowing _what _to say. Ironhide gave a deepened laugh and looked at her.

"Well, you're welcome!" he chuckled. He continued loading up the cannons and this time he didn't try so hard. He stopped short and looked off into space. Charm waved a hand in front of his optics, but he didn't even blink. A second time, he finally responded and looked at her.

"What's wrong?" she asked. Ironhide gave his answer by running outside the room shouting "Decepticon alert!" Anyone who was in the warehouse could hear Bumblebee fall over the side of his bed and Ratchet grumbling about the time. As for Optimus, he didn't look so thrilled to be woken up either.

"What's the problem, Ironhide?" he said, voice sounding like a growl. Charm only hoped that was always what her leader sounded like whenever he woke up too fast.

"Decepticons, inside the city. They just arrived," the specialist panted. Bumblebee brought his face mask forward and his hand switched to a cannon.

"_Lock and load!… Get 'er done!_" he cheered. Charm giggled at the yellow mech's silliness and went back to gather her cassettes. Though they didn't appreciate being woken up, they still obeyed and fitted into her chest. She followed behind the Autobots as they raced below her. She noticed that they stopped and she transformed to hover where she was.

"What's wrong?" she radioed.

"_A stinkin' red light_," Ironhide answered. "_And there's nobody driving by! Primus, I hate it when that happens!_"

A shot was heard, followed by a shatter of glass.

"Look, no more red light," Bumblebee said from his radio. A static giggle of his was heard through the com-link and the Autobots started driving again. Even a groan and sigh was heard across the radio waves.

"Very cute, 'Bee," Charm sighed. Her guess was that he shouldn't have done that in the first place. She kept following close behind, not trying to fall out of the air with her speed. Jets were supposed to go at hundred or a hundred and fifty so they wouldn't plummet down to the earth. But she had to stay behind the Autobots so she wouldn't get hurt when she was there by herself. Optimus seemed to read her mind.

"_Go on ahead, Charm_," he said. "_We'll catch up._"

Charm whimpered a bit but followed the order. She flew downtown and spotted two seekers, Soundwave, and the four Cassetteicons. Soundwave, of course, was the first to notice Charm. He turned to the seekers that were destroying buildings, looking for an All Spark fragment, and ordered them to stay put.

"She's mine," he growled. He looked back up to Charm as she landed yards ahead of him. "I see you feel better."

"I see that you still don't know me," Charm whispered, not to let him hear. "Come on, guys!" she yelled to her cassettes. They jumped out of her chest and ran towards Soundwave's bunch.

"Attack!" the blue 'bot ordered. The cassettes simply followed orders, but decided together that it would be a spar, just like old times. Soundwave lunged at Charm, but the silver seeker held still. Her arms were put outward and her fingers were interlaced with Soundwave's as he came forward. They both tried to force the other back.

"Are you going to spar again?" he said.

"Duh!" Charm said with a hidden smile. She moved her arms to the right and flipped the mech over so he was on his back. She stepped a foot on his chest and stared down at him. "Round one complete."

"Round two, begin," Soundwave chuckled. Charm took her foot off and dodged when Soundwave tried to grab her legs to trip her. He stood up and waited for something to happen or an idea to come to him. His best attack was a sonic frequency he forced on her. No one else could hear it, but it was as clear as air to Charm. Her audio receivers began to hurt and her CPU felt like it was going to fry.

Techno stopped battling with Laserbeak as they both noticed what Soundwave was doing. The bird and the 'bot jumped on Soundwave's head and pounded/pecked it. The big blue mech lost his focus and tried to force off the cassettes.

"Laserbeak, what are you doing?!" he shouted. Charm let go of her head and saw how Laserbeak had turned on his own master to save her. How come the cassettes remembered her when he didn't? Weren't they consumed by the dark like Soundwave? They were connected to him, weren't they? Maybe the huggable, kind, admirable Soundwave was still there inside him. The seeker stood up and heard a horn blare from behind. Optimus and his 'bots transformed and ran right towards the two Decepticon seekers left. The red and blue mech stopped beside Charm.

"Can you handle him?" he said, a smile coming on.

"Yes, sir," she said simply. Optimus nodded and ran off with swords as hands towards Skywarp and Thundercracker. He didn't expect Starscream to be anywhere around. He was probably being lazy and watching the battle from far away. He knew that would happen once Starscream became in control of the Decepticon empire.

Soundwave was finally able to get Laserbeak and Techno off of him, but they kept jumping on him as well as the rest of the cassettes. Star and Rumble on his left leg, Sky Light and Frenzy on his right, Ravage and Techno took hold of the right arm, Shocker to the left, and Laserbeak to the head. Soundwave was getting small dents all over his body.

"Order your cassettes to cease!" Soundwave shouted to Charm. The seeker giggled.

"I think they're having fun!" she said. She liked hearing how irritated Soundwave could get. She tried so long to hear that from him, but she could never accomplish that. Now it was just plain funny!

"Get off me!" Soundwave shouted to the Cassetteicons. They had stopped beating now and only enjoyed the ride as he kicked and waved his arms to try and shake them off. They whooped and cheered and screamed with joy as they were constantly shaken. Soundwave stopped shaking them after hearing the laughter and stood still, confused.

"That was so much fun!" Techno gasped.

"Let's go again! Let's go again!" Frenzy chanted. Soon, all the cassettes were chanting it while Ravage and Laserbeak squawked and roared in agreement. Soundwave looked over at Charm.

"How much energon did they have?" he said. Charm giggled.

"Don't you see, they like you!" she said, trying to make him remember further. Soundwave was stuck between his academy days and the present. She was starting to look all too familiar. Her laughter was warm and made him feel like he was back on Cybertron. Not helping it, he laughed as well. It was that evil chuckle that he gave out earlier. It was more happy.

"Do you know who I am?" Charm asked.

Soundwave snapped back to reality and the Decepticon in him growled. He finally brushed off the cassettes as they gave out cries and told Charm to run. Soundwave came at the seeker again, but she took a step to the side, made him fall, then pinned him from behind again. This time, he was up against a tree.

"I think I am beginning to enjoy this," he chuckled.

_Oh great, now he's a pervert!_ Charm thought.

"Why don't you just _tell _me your name?" he continued.

"If I told you, there would be no point in this," Charm said, a little disappointed. "Can you remember?"

"Remember what?"

"Back before the war started, before it all began. Close your eyes, and think back. What do you see?"

Soundwave did as he was told and his mind was thrown back into his school days, before academy. He was so young then, so small, so shy, he didn't even have his cassettes yet. Nobody talked to him because they thought he was the strangest of any, because of his voice. He was standing over the edge of a building, thinking about jumping to get it all over with. To end it. A voice was heard behind him and he turned to look.

"_What the spark are you doing?!_" said a little lavender and silver girl. She walked up to him and stood near the edge. "_Yer not gonna do what I _think_ you're doing, right? You're not gonna 'accidentally' trip and fall over the edge?_"

The young Soundwave didn't know what to say. She held out her hand and told him to come down. He looked at the girl as if she was sent by Primus to save him. He took the hand and she helped him back down from the edge. The present Soundwave saw this as the girl who was pinning him to the tree.

"_What's your name?_" she said.

"_What is yours?_" the tiny Soundwave said back. The silver girl giggled.

"_I like your voice. My name's--_"

The vision was gone. Soundwave felt to strangle something in fury, but another vision entered. He was older now, almost what the humans call a teenager. The girl was just as grown up as him and running towards him.

"_Soundwave, I passed!_" she cheered. "_I passed the test! I can go to the academy, just like you!_"

Another flash, another vision. But these came in quick and went away just the same. Another sparring match, a few laughs, messed with by all their cassettes, even their last hug. Soundwave came back to life to the present. The seeker eased off of him so he could turn around and face her. He removed her face mask first to reveal a hopeful, open mouth. The he took off her visor, eyes with faith and love. One word, a name, came into his head.

"Charm?"

xXx

Author's Note: **I! NEED! REVIEWS! **And listen to the song _Feels Like Home _from Chantal Kreviazuk. It'll help a _lot_!


	5. Frankenstein

Chapter V

"Charm?" he repeated. The seeker was shocked, thrilled, and ecstatic all at once. Her mouth formed into a smile and the blue mech came forward quickly to hug her, right hand holding her head and his left arm around her waist. He sounded as if he was crying and Charm hugged him back. "I'm so sorry, Charm!" Charm was glad to hug him again. From being with the Decepticons, his touch was freezing; not at all what she remembered. Evil had consumed him, distracted him from his happiest moments. Charm had swept in to bring him back.

"It's okay, big guy," she cried. Her arms wrapped around his neck and wanted to hold him there forever. If she let go, she was afraid to lose him again. She felt like singing, but it was disrupted when Skywarp screamed at the officer.

"Soundwave! What the pit are you doing?!" he shouted. The purple streaked black seeker was hovering in the air, dodging Bumblebee's and Ironhide's blasts, and looking at Soundwave, the cold and dark Soundwave, hugging an Autobot femme. Soundwave eased the hug to look at Charm.

"We are still enemies," he said. The seeker couldn't tell the emotion in his voice anymore.

"No, please!" she begged. Her face was buried into his chest and her optics overflowed with tears. "We don't have to be. We can run away!"

"I am sorry," he whispered. His voice was starting to break as he let go of Charm and transformed. "Ravage, Laserbeak, Rumble, Frenzy; return." The cassettes said their good-byes to Charm's Cassetteicons and piled into Soundwave. "Thundercracker, Skywarp, fall back!"

"Are you kidding me?!" Thundercracker argued. "What about the All Spark?!"

Soundwave paused. Charm could tell that he was looking at her. He spoke. "I am sure we can give the Autobots a head-start. Now fall back!"

Thundercracker grumbled and transformed. He flew off towards the base in the stars. Skywarp gave out a "See ya later, losers!" to the Autobots and flew behind his blue brother. Soundwave opened up a space portal and zoomed right through. The other Autobots looked around at each other to catch up with what had happened. Charm stood still and was ready to curl into the tiniest ball possible. Soundwave left only one thing with her; a cold touch.

"Charm?" Ratchet spoke, walking over to the girl. The seeker gasped, wondering how long she had held her breath, and curled up into that ball. She didn't roll over to the side, she kept herself straight as she put her arms around her legs and started to cry. Typical Soundwave, always seeing the logic.

_We are still enemies_.

"Charm, are you alright?" Ratchet repeated, leaning down next to her and placing a hand on her back to see if that simple movement would help. Charm kept gasping for more breath to have enough energy to force out those tears.

"We're still enemies…" she cried, repeating her lover's sentence. No, he was no longer a lover. Just as he said, they were enemies. Charm didn't want to believe that, she just couldn't!

"Come on, let's go home," Ratchet said, helping her stand up.

Bumblebee stood behind the crowd that tried to comfort the seeker. A light found its way to the side of his face and turned his head.

"_Well, well, well. What do we have here_?" he said. He walked over and bent down to the pile of rubble. He dug through the brick and steel to find a piece of the All Spark, as big as an average human.

"_Eureka!_" he cheered, holding up the fragment. Optimus turned to see the yellow mech and took the Spark piece from his hands to inspect it. It glowed brightly in his hands. Ratchet walked away from Charm and looked at it. Ironhide stood by the seeker to give her another one of his warm hugs.

"This is it!" the doc 'bot said. "We can bring Jazz back to life!"

"_Dude, that's awesome!_" Bumblebee whooped.

"We've got to get to the warehouse to bring him online. Come on, Ironhide!" ratchet transformed as well as Bumblebee and Optimus Prime. Ironhide stood by Charm.

"If it's all right with you, I think I'll walk," he said. Ratchet gave a huff.

"Suit yourself," he said, the headlights in synch with every syllable he brought out. "We'll wait at the base."

Ironhide nodded and watched as Ratchet turned on his siren and have Optimus and Bumblebee follow him back into the late-night traffic. This time they were taking a detour around that broken red light that Bumblebee caused. That street was backed up for miles due to a crash. (Yeah, thanks, 'Bee…)

"You can go ahead," Charm said, her voice weak. Her cassettes walked up to her to try and give her more comfort.

"I insist," Ironhide grunted.

"Ya such a gentle-'bot," Star teased. Ironhide paid no attention to her and eased the hug. He grabbed Charm's chin so she could look at him.

"It'll be alright," he said. "You'll see. Autobots always make it out."

"Out of combat," Charm groaned. "Not emotional status."

"True," Ironhide said, almost like saying "Touché." "Do you want me to leave, or…?"

"Nothing's stopping ya."

"Okay!" With that, Ironhide transformed and rolled off, leaving Charm heartbroken with her cassettes. Star picked up a rock and threw it in Ironhide's direction.

"JERK-OFF!" she shouted. Charm told her to calm down, but how could she? Some guy like 'Hide just leaving her like that? What the pit was he _thinking_?! It was one of those moments where a voice in the back of that Cassetteicon's head said _Exactly, he _wasn't _thinking._

"Let's just go home," Charm said. Her cassettes filed into her chest and she kept thinking to herself to cheer up, especially since her old pal Jazz was coming back to life. Thinking about that actually made her happier and she had the strength to fly back to base. She didn't bothering switching to alt mode, she just wanted to fly for Primus' sake.

Once she was back at the warehouse, she walked quickly inside and unloaded her cassettes so they could watch Jazz come back to life. Everyone was piled into the med bay (AKA Ratchet's room) and saw the white, offline body of the mech. It wasn't as gross to Autobots to see a dead body of one of their own; they didn't rot or have bugs crawling like humans did. Their bodies became rough and rusted, then finally they'd give out and crumble to the ground. It seemed like Jazz was well on his way.

"Stand back now," Ratchet ordered. The Autobots had taken a large step back, but the Cassetteicons kept standing on top of the berth to watch. Ratchet held the two All Spark pieces and safely lowered them near Jazz's chest. Electric bolts started bursting between the fragments and Jazz's spark chamber.

"_Watch the magic happen…_" Bumblebee said. The offline body made a few static noises and a low hum as his spark began to grow little by little. Ratchet took the All Spark chips away from the body so he wouldn't overload it.

"Charm, I want you to stay by him. Ask him 'yes or no' questions," he instructed. "If he moves to respond, then keep talking, find out how he's doing. We'll leave you alone."

The seeker looked at her cassettes. "That means you, too," she said.

"Aw, come on!" they whined.

"Doctor's orders," the old ambulance said. "Leave Charm alone. She'll tell us when Jazz is good and ready." He looked to the silver seeker. "If you hear any bangs coming from his chest, that's his spark growing. Don't be scared. And if he tries to touch himself, hold him down. I don't need another injury out of anyone more today."

"Okay," Charm said. Ratchet nodded and scooted everyone out of the room, including the complaining Cassetteicons. The seeker looked at Jazz. His color was starting to come back slowly. She stroked her finger lightly on the side of his face and heard a low exhale from him. To find out what movement was yes and which was no, Charm asked him a question.

"Are you alive?" she said. Jazz's fingers twitched a bit and stopped after three seconds. That must've been a yes.

"I'm Charm, remember me?"

His closed optics tightened. _No_.

"I used to be in the academy with you. The purple and white seeker?"

Jazz's fingers twitched and a little smile formed on his face. Charm found this kind of interesting and cute, so she continued.

"Did the humans treat you okay?"

A twitch of the fingers. Then a small clang was heard from Jazz's chest and the seeker flinched. Jazz moaned out loud and his hand reached over to cover it. Charm obeyed Ratchet's orders, took Jazz's arm, and placed it back onto the berth. The mech started breathing loudly and was groaning in pain.

"It'll pass soon enough. You believe me, right?"

Twitching fingers.

The femme let out a giggle. It was kind of cool talking to somebody like this, but terrible that they were half-dead. She rubbed his arm to try and calm him, and it eventually worked. Jazz stopped breathing so hard and his face eased.

"Does it hurt, your chest?" she said. She got two answers this time. The fingers twitched and his head rolled over to the side. It took Charm a while to figure it out and saw that Jazz wanted her to move to the other side of him. She obeyed and twisted around to the other end.

"Is that better?"

Jazz's face went into another smile. His eyes didn't open, but he held out an arm and reached towards her face. Charm kept absolutely still so he could find her. His hand made it to the side of her face and a thumb rubbed against her cheek.

"Mm…" he moaned. It was no joke that Jazz always felt comfortable around femmes. No wonder Ratchet picked her for this.

"Feel better now?"

Charm was answered by another bang in his chest. He let go of her face screamed out a couple of octaves higher than necessary. Charm reacted quickly and held down both of Jazz's arms. His head moved upward like he was going to bite something on his chest, but he sat it back down and groaned. Charm looked at silver mech's chest as it started to come together and transfuse above Jazz's spark. He kicked and screamed, wanting to be let go.

"RATCHET!" Charm shouted. The doctor was in the room in an instant and saw her trying to strap him down. He walked over to the other side and pushed a single button. Fiber straps snaked over Jazz's arm and legs, holding him down. He moved recklessly, nonetheless, but he was secured down tight.

"That's the worst he's going to have it," Ratchet assured Charm. "The next one will be his last and won't hurt him as much. After the last bang, wake him up gently."

The seeker nodded her head and waited as Ratchet left the room. Jazz started to breathe harder now, his teeth were bared, and he was heating up from the pain. He still couldn't speak, so he couldn't tell Charm how much it hurt, but it pained the fem-bot to see him like this. She hadn't seen this much struggle since her caretaker went offline.

"Jazz, it's okay," she said, put her hand on his arm to try and calm him. He didn't seem to notice and kept lashing about.

"GRAH!" he screamed. "Hurts!"

"I know it hurts, baby, but it'll be okay." She didn't feel all that comfortable calling him "baby", but it seemed to work. The last bang clattered against his chest and he eased off. All the struggle stopped, the pain went away as quickly as it came. His optics started to open slowly and Charm let out a gasp. He turned his face over to her.

"Did you just…call me baby?" he said. Charm laughed and felt some tears from her eyes. Jazz smiled and touched her face again. "Nice to see ya."

"You, too, big boy." She turned around and ran to the open door. "Ratchet, he's up!"

xXx

Author's Note: For all you snazzy Jazzy fans, I brought him back for ya! I'm the girl! You can bow down to me if you'd like.


	6. Oh What A Beautiful Morning

**This is a hint given out to everyone. Always check over your chapters whenever you're doing something dramatic or romantic. Readers will notice the mistake and it drops the illusion you wanna give. That's what I did for a long time.**

* * *

Chapter VI

There was a series of welcomes as the rest of the Autobots piled in to say hello to Jazz. The silver mech was still a bit weak to say much; he was just tired is all. As for Bumblebee, he hopped around Ratchet like was the humans' fabled Easter bunny and pointed to his throat. For a while, Ratchet didn't know what the heck he was so wound up about, but it occurred to him that the yellow mech wanted him to use the All Spark on his voice processor. If it could bring Jazz back to life, it could definitely fix a broken voice box.

"Hold still, this may tingle," the doc 'bot said. Ironhide and Charm held Bumblebee by his arms so he would move around once he had his "shot." Ratchet slowly moved one of the pieces near the middle of his throat and a strike of electricity surged into his pipe. The yellow 'bot moved back a bit but was caught by Ironhide and the seeker. They lifted him back up as he tried out his voice.

"Testing, one, two. Testing." Then with the radio. "_It's a miracle!_"

"You don't have to do that anymore," Charm pointed out.

"But it still kind of fun!" Bumblebee chirped. He choked as he felt his voice box trying to get used to the sudden change. "_Does anybody else feel like a fried egg?!_"



"You did _what_?!" Starscream screeched, his voice echoing across the room. Though Soundwave never flinched at the shrill sound of the seeker's voice. He never was intimidated. The blue Corvette always saw Starscream as second-in-command and a whiny glitch, no matter what.

"He--He was hugging a femme," Thundercracker said, afraid of what was going to happen.

"An _Autobot _femme," Skywarp pointed out. He flinched when Starscream pointed a gun at them. He lowered it and looked back at the motionless and expressionless intelligence officer.

"Let's hear you admit it," he smirked.

Soundwave didn't know how to put this into words. He could've said something that sounded like he hugged and didn't mean it, but it was still a hug either way. He gathered up his courage for Charm and announced out his "Decepticon crime" or so they called it.

"I wrapped my arms around an Autobot femme…and held her close," he said. A couple of snickers were heard from the black seeker behind him, but Starscream shot a null ray blast at him to shut him up again. That always worked. "I am ready for any consequence you put before me."

Starscream smiled. He liked this kind of assignment; giving people their punishments. "You seem to have failed me at my previous request: to kill the girl. It seems as though I will have to do it myself."

"NO!" Soundwave shouted. Starscream shot an angry look at him, which made the blue 'bot realize his mistake and put his arms back to his side.

"Tomorrow night, I'm going to lure her out," the seeker continued. "And there's not a slagging thing you can do about it!" He let out his ever-infamous evil laugh and stepped down to go to his quarters for stasis. "Get some rest," he ordered. Thundercracker and Skywarp brushed past the frozen Soundwave and walked to their rooms. Rumble, without invitation, jumped from his master's chest and landed on he floor in front of them.

"What are we gonna do, boss?" he said, trembling. He didn't want Charm do die, either. He heard about something between a Cybertronian and its Mini-cons or Cassetteicons. It said something like when the master dies, all the 'cons die as well. Rumble always had a crush on one of Charm's cassettes, Star. And Frenzy had a thing for Sky Light. If Charm died, they would die, too.

"It would be a terrible time to mention that I know where the Autobot warehouse is," Soundwave said. You didn't need to remove the face mask to see that he was giving a smirk.



Charm slept soundly, knowing that everything was basically okay; Bumblebee got his voice back, Jazz was alive, and Soundwave remembered who she was. The only problem was that he probably didn't care enough to come back to her. He just went ahead and left her in the night, feeling like a lost child. The silver seeker kept thinking to herself that he just needed time to recollect himself and it'll come to him little by little. That was all she could think about as she slept. Then the time went by so quickly that she didn't even know that she went to sleep. Like her head finally said _Ahh, I can sleep now_ and then an alarm went into her head that it was time to wake. Actually, it wasn't the alarm. It was more like knocking on the door. Her cassettes sat up and trembled, scared to death of what might be behind there.

"H-Hello?" Charm called out. The door opened slowly and Jazz's head poked through. "Oh, Jazz, I thought you were someone else. Hey! What are you--?"

Jazz picked her up by slipping both his arms under Charm and carrying her. The femme was about to shout when the mech pulled in to try and kiss her.

"Jazz, what in Pit are you trying to pull?!" she screamed.

"Suggestion: stay quiet," Jazz said. Wait a second, that wasn't Jazz. He'd never say something like that.

"How--!"

The figure of Jazz told her to shush. Charm looked to the side at her cassettes and saw four extra ones standing by them. Two of them were trying to get onto Star and Sky Light, but they shot their hands up to block them from sight. The seeker looked back to "Jazz".

"Let's get outta here, Romeo," she giggled. "And I ought ta slap you for leaving me." The mech chuckled and poked his head outside the door. He looked left and right to make sure no one was around. He took a left turn to the exit, but something was in his way, like the real silver mech.

"Whoa, dude, is this the _Twilight Zone_?" he said. Charm noticed how he was still rubbing his optics and figured he must've been too sleepy to realize that it was real. The fake Jazz slowly walked towards him and the real Jazz kept backing up until his doppelganger was able to pass right by him. The phony ran by him and passed the security doors. He waited outside for the cassettes and they lined up ahead of them. The copy-cat set Charm down on her feet so both of them could gather their Cassetteicons. Once that was accomplished, Charm and her little thief ran to side of Tranquility, towards the park and onto the highest hill.

"You can drop the illusion now, big guy," she said. He did as he was told and his true form started to appear, from the bottom up. "Soundwave, you didn't have to."

"I wanted to," he said simply. The silver seeker giggled one of the girly kind and looked back at him. His hands moved so slow it scared her, but she saw them move up to her face and unbolt the face mask. It came off with a small squeak and he set it aside. He moved on to her visor.

"What kind of face is behind that mask?" he said, repeating their first encounter from yesterday. A hiss came from the sides of Charm's face as he pulled out the visor to reveal the most beautiful, light lavender eyes that he'd ever seen; the ones he hadn't seen in years. He was captivated so much that he forgot where he was, but didn't bother to check any navigation systems to find out. He only cared for what was happening and that it _was_ happening.

"My turn," Charm smiled. She put her delicate hands on his face mask, making him tingle with anticipation. No one had ever seen his face and he couldn't remember if Charm had ever in the first place. Honestly, Charm never really did. She unscrewed the face mask and threw it to the side with hers. His lips were just _begging _to be kissed. She could even see the teeth behind them shiver. Soundwave bowed his head a bit so she could get a hold of his visors. The same small hiss seeped through and she carefully put the visors next to the other coverings. His face was like a god's; just simply and immensely perfect. Soundwave's eyes slowly opened as she looked into them. His eyes were shifted from different colors. There would be a blue on one spot and red in the other. Charm saw this that he was stuck between Autobot and Decepticon. He put his hands on her jaw and leaned in for a kiss.

_Smack!_

Soundwave held the side of his face after that little slap Charm said she'd give him. He backed up a few steps to get ready for the next one.

"That was for leaving me!" she said in an angry tone. She moved closer to him, put her hands on his chest, and smiled up to his confused face. His arms gathered a mind of their own and wrapped around her like a blanket. "And _this_ is for coming back." She placed her arms around Soundwave's neck so he could lean in closer for their first kiss.

The officer was getting tingles all over! His systems shrieked that he was overheating, but he ignored it like it was just a swift brush of air. His lips contoured to hers and they shared a passionate exchange of energon. His spark had lurched forward and he pulled her in as close as he could without breaking the kiss. Soundwave moaned as he enjoyed her taste and kept wanting more with every bit that he received.

Charm was simply overjoyed. She would've screamed with it, but she didn't want to end the kiss with such a childish remark. She felt how hungry he was for affection and how he hated that he couldn't remember her in the first place. Her life was nothing compared to this moment. Both of them had lived so far apart from each other for so long that this couldn't be real. The seeker could even feel the change in his touch as they kept kissing for more of each other. The first time it was cold and dark sting. Now it was warm, the true touch that Soundwave had buried for so long by the bitterness of the Decepticons, and the true touch of his love for Charm.

xXx

Author's Note: Jazz, how dumb could you be?


	7. The Boy's Back

Chapter VII

All day, from sun up to sun down, the Autobots called in Lennox to arrange a search team to look for Charm. No one had seen her when they woke up, and even her cassettes were missing. They checked the security tapes over and over and only picked up Jazz running out with her. Jazz kept saying that he never took her, never did, never will, and that he was tired when he thought he saw a doppelganger of himself sneaking out with the female seeker. Ironhide kept a good job of hiding his panic, but it seemed that Bumblebee, if this was a test, would fail miserably.

"What if she's hurt?" he said, shaking all over. "What if the Decepticons got her? What if she's _dead_?!"

"'Bee?" Jazz said, sounding annoyed.

"Huh?"

Jazz held a long gaze at the yellow mech. "Put tha shut to tha up. 'Kay? The shut…to tha up." Bumblebee kept whimpering, thinking about what Charm might be going through. "Yo, we've got twenty, hear me, _twenty_ search teams out there lookin' for her. Now get your tail in gear and les go." Jazz shifted into the silver Solstice and Bumblebee slowly turned into his Camero. They split up to two different sides of Tranquility and kept their scanners open for anything and everything.

The silver mech drove slow on the clear road and kept searching left and right for Charm. It was already getting dark and no one had seen her, not even Epps' team. They searched the city again and again, until they were ready to fall down from exhaustion. An idea entered Jazz's mind. _They searched only the city._

"Big, fat, slagging duh," he muttered. He pressed the pedal down and went up to seventy on the road that led straight one of the exits of the city. He radioed Prime and the others to give them the order.

"Yo! It's Jazz. I was thinking, since we've already gone ring-around-the-rosie for the city a while, what about outside the city? She could be a few miles out."

"_Good thinking, Jazz_," Optimus replied, hope in the voice. "_Autobots, let's roll._"

Jazz smiled to himself. It felt pretty good when you figured out something no else did or could. Kind of made you feel special. The mech followed his own order and zoomed down the street, dodging all the cars and making his way past the traffic lights before they could go red. The mech found his way to the park outside of Tranquility and slowed down to five miles per hour. He saw a couple of kids around the lake and they pointed to him, not knowing he was an Autobot. A girl, dressed in a bathing suit, knocked on the dark windows.

"Open up!" she sang. Jazz chuckled to himself. A little fun couldn't hurt. So he rolled down the window and revealed his holoform; a dark-skinned, bulky man with light blue visors. He looked at the girl and gave a fake smile that anyone would think was real.

"Hey, baby," he said. The girl crossed her arms over the open window and her face leaned closer into the car.

"Nice ride," she said, inspecting it. Jazz smiled at her, and she giggled. Another man walked up and pulled her to the side to talk to Jazz's holoform.

"What do ya think you're doing, talking to my girl?" he growled.

"Looks like she don't wanna be your girl if she's talkin' ta me," Jazz said with his best tone of voice. The man held him by the shirt collar and pulled him closer.

"I don't want you talkin' to my girl!" he emphasized. He stared at Jazz for the longest time until he finally let go of him. He turned around to see some people touching his Hummer and he yelled at them. "Yo, I don't want no fingerprints on my ride!"

Jazz smirked. His car form brought out a large gun from above the wheel and pointed it at the man's car. He fired a single, blue, laser ball and the car shot up to into the sky, on fire. The man started screaming in rage and frustration.

"That's my car!" he shouted.

"I know it's yo car," Jazz muttered to himself. Nothing was as fun as messing with pampered human teenagers. He stuck his head out the window and shouted to him. "Hey!" The man turned around. "Keep workin' on dat trust fund, boy! You gonna need it now! Ha-ha-ha!" He rolled up the window and drove off before the man could run towards him to try and strangle his holoform.



"Oh, Soundwave, I'm so glad you came back!" Charm sighed. They were both lying down on the grass in the far side of the park. Charm was lying next to him, head on his chest, and he had an arm around her to keep her there. "What made you change your mind?"

Soundwave was stuck. The biggest reason he came was to save her from getting killed in her stasis by Starscream. His next reason was the feeling he hadn't received in years, long cold years. He loved her, perhaps too much.

"Charm?" he said, voice breaking.

"Hmm?"

"We can't."

Charm put her head up so she could look at his. Soundwave's optics were showing how worried he was. This was why he always wore his face mask, to hide his feelings. He wasn't good at lying without giving a straight face.

"What are you talking about?" Charm gasped, almost scared. Soundwave sat up and put his hand on the side of her shocked face. He could tell she already knew the answer. She just wanted to hear it.

"We cannot be together," he said. "We are from different sides; our love is forbidden to all. There is no way we can continue like this without someone noticing. I love you, truly I do…but we can't."

"_You _can't," Charm said, a sound of disappointment in her tone. Her eyes were giving a watery anger and Soundwave knew there was no way to fix it. "We can run away, just like I said!"

"We cannot do that!" he shouted, scaring her. He put his arms around her again and held her face to his chest. Charm slid her hand between her face and his chest to have some room to breathe. The seeker began to cry and he petted her head to try and make her feel better.

"I don't care if I'm an Autobot and you're a Decepticon," she said. "'Bots are 'bots. We're really all the same."

"I do not want to leave you," he said. Soundwave began to cry himself.

"Then don't!"

"I have to! If Starscream saw me with you, he would kill me! I need to be away from you to save you."

"Then why are you here?"

Again, the blue mech choked up. His eyes were wide with sadness and his mouth hung open to try and wait for something to come out. How was he to put this into words? He hadn't had this much trouble since the academy. He took a moment to get some courage and spoke.

"The main reason I am here _is _to save you."

"But you just--!"

"Let me finish." Charm shut her mouth and looked at him with intense and impatient eyes. "Starscream had ordered me to kill you. When I came back from our last battle, he found out from Skywarp that I was showing affection for you. He did not want me to get distracted any further and was planning to…to kill you tonight."

It was Charm's turn to choke up. Soundwave knew the risk of being seen, he had established that, but he snuck into the Autobot base to get her out before tonight ever happened, to warn her. She was starting to think that Soundwave had only kissed her for her sake. Then he seemed to have read her mind.

"I meant it," he said. "Every single bit. I enjoyed it all; the best feeling I have had in my life cycle. I did not want it to be over."

"Let's just run away!" Charm repeated, throwing her fists weakly onto his chest. He grabbed her wrists and looked at those wonderful purple eyes.

"Starscream will find me; Optimus would not accept me," he said. Charm started to cry again. This wasn't fair! Everything she had gone through, all those years of pain and anxiety of knowing the truth about her old friend, worthless.

"I don't wanna lose you again!" she sobbed. Her tears ran down her face like a small waterfall and dropped onto Soundwave's chest. The mech put his arms around her again, his touch having no temperature. Charm couldn't feel what he was; a cold Decepticon, or a warm Autobot. "I'll convince him. I'll convince Prime to take you in, I'll make him! I don't want you to go forever!"

Soundwave held her tighter. The femme felt his strength weakening, though. He wasn't strong enough to stand up for Charm, he was so sure that Starscream would kill him on the spot. If he died, she wouldn't be able to kiss him again. She would have to watch his body crumble before her eyes. The seeker couldn't imagine what the officer's face would look like if he did die. Would he be happy that he was able to see and remember her again, even for a short time? Sad because he's going away from her forever? Or hold a shout when Starscream killed him? One way or the next, it would pain her all too much.

"If you say you can convince Optimus Prime to take me as I am, to change me into an Autobot, I am willing," he said.

"Thank you, Soundwave!" Charm cried, tears now filled with happiness.



What they didn't see was, in the shadow of a large tree, that Jazz watching as they sat together, hugging and spending their time talking softly to one another. He had heard the entire discussion about Starscream's coming and Charm wanting Soundwave to join the Autobots to be with him. He didn't like the idea. What if he betrayed them and gave away their location of the warehouse? But seeing that Charm loved him the way he was, Soundwave needed some back up for the next time he would see Starscream.

Jazz stayed hidden behind the tree, waiting for the best moment to come out. But with every second that passed, it seemed like the moment was getting worse and worse. He caught Soundwave going in for another kiss, and he _really _did want to see that, so he popped out from behind the tree.

"Finally! We've been all over for you, girl!" he said to Charm. Soundwave grumbled and put his face coverings back in place. He would allow Charm and only Charm to remove them and to see his face. The seeker glared at Jazz.

"If you hurt him, I'll--!"

"Do nothing," Jazz finished for her. "I heard that talk. Y'all love each other, and I would've let you done yer business, but 'Bee and 'Hide are worried sick 'bout you. We had no idea where you jiggied off to!"

"I was here with Soundwave, is that a problem?" she snapped. Soundwave didn't move. For one, he found his all very interesting to hear them fight. It was almost as good as listening to Thundercracker and Skywarp, but without the child-like remarks.

"I'm jus sayin' that you could-a left a note er something. 'Bee thought you was dead."

"Well, sorry for making everyone so miserable, I'm just trying to catch up with someone I haven't seen since graduation! If you don't mind, I'd like to be alone with him."

"Don't test me, chick."

"Get lost, fragger." She heard the cassettes inside her bring a chorus of "ooh"s and tried so hard not to laugh. Jazz put a hand to his receiver and smirked.

"Yo, O.P.," he said. Charm's angry face turned into something that said "oh scrap!" "Yeah, I found Charm. She's here with Soundwave. Yeah, yeah, I know it sounds loopy, but once ya hear their story, it's kind of dramatic and sad…Okay…A'ight, later." He hung up and looked at the seeker. "I told ya not ta test me."

"Damn you," Charm growled.

"Hey, I'll make it up," Jazz offered. "I'll try to make some dates so that you an' 'Wave can run around doin' Primus knows what with each other. That way you two can be happy and I won't get the tar kicked outta me."

Charm glared at him for a second to think. "Fine. Deal." She held out her and Jazz gave it a firm shake.

"Good. The guys are comin' over, so suggest you get yo tailpipes up off dat ground and away before 'Bee goes crazy on ya."

Soundwave was the first to move and helped the femme up by holding her hand. She gave a small thank you and reached for her own mask and visor. The blue Corvette helped set them tightly and comfortably on her face, then waited for the worst.



The Autobots and the Decepticon returned back to the warehouse and Optimus gathered Bumblebee, Ratchet, and Ironhide to discuss the matter.

"The dude's a psychopath!" Bumblebee screamed. "After all he's done to us, why should we let him in? He might give the location of our hideout!"

"True, he may turn on us," Ratchet said, more calmly than the yellow mech. "But I can see that being around Charm makes him more stable and not as rough as the Decepticon we normally see him as."

"He's probably trying to take us off-guard," Ironhide pitched in. "You know how our own intelligence officers work in battle. They try to use every trick they can to get to the enemy."

"Maybe so, but if he is hiding something, I'm not able to see it," Optimus grunted. "I've never seen Soundwave act so calm and show affection, even once. Perhaps the story between him and Charm are true. And maybe Charm's theory is true as well; Soundwave was taken over by the force of Decepticons and that's what caused him to cloud his judgment. He has found his true side and wants to stay with her. But there is also the chance of Starscream picking up the rest of what remains of his Decepticon signal."

"WHOA! Having a thought here!" Bumblebee interrupted. "If Soundwave comes to our side, do you think he could tell us where the Decepticon base is?"

"He could," Ratchet said. "But that would make us just as terrible as them."

"It was just a thought; no harm in it."

"Either way," Optimus continued, "I am willing to risk having the Decepticons find us so Charm can be with Soundwave."

"But, sir--!" Ironhide started out. Prime held up a hand to stop him.

"I believe Charm's story is true, and that Soundwave wants to change. He'll prove himself when Starscream arrives tonight."

xXx

Author's Note: Each time I do Jazz, I have to either think of Madea or say his sentences myself to get it right. I even do the same with Blitzwing! (Extra note about Blitzy; you can't just put in "z" with every word that fits, that only goes to replace "th". There's a "j" when he says "you" and "v" sometimes replaces "w". I just thought I'd say that because it annoys the heck outta me when someone gets it wrong...I'm watchin' y'all...)

How 'bout that Jazz action at the lake, huh!


	8. Doppelganger

IF: I am SO sorry that I haven't updated in...what was it, two months?  
Jazz: One fo sho.  
IF: Okay, well, this chapter's kinda short, but it's good enough for most of the people out there, I'm sure. I'll try to be faster, though.

Chapter VIII

Sam Witwitky, a teenage boy with alien robots as his best friends, and yet he has nothing to do with them. He kept calling Bumblebee to ask what was going on and why he wasn't even in the garage that morning, but the yellow Camero kept his signal shut.

"Come on, 'Bee, Michaela's out, Mom and Dad are gone, I'm alone in the house, pick up the damn phone," he grunted. He held his cell pone higher into the air to see if it would help. It beeped once. "Oh, thank you." He put it front of him to dial the number. "Pick up, pick up, pick up, _please _pick up…"

Still no answer.

"Piece of crap cell phone is what this is," he muttered. He tried again. "Please, please, please, please…"

"_What do you want, already?!_" Bumblebee shouted through the phone.

"Dude, you're really scaring me here," Sam said frantically. "You didn't tell me what happened this morning, I'm sitting here wondering what's going on between Charm and Soundwave, and, dude, I've got nothing else to do around this God-forsaken place. Okay? _Nothing_."

"_And you're wondering if you could spend a night with us?_"

"Well, I was kinda hopin'…"

"_Fine, I'm coming. But we're in the middle of a battle plan here, so don't distract us!_"

"Battle plan? What the heck does _that _mean?"



Starscream didn't mind luring in an Autobot, but what irritated him was that he had to sweet-talk a _femme _Autobot to come to him. He spent the whole day working on a device that would disguise his voice to sound like Soundwave's and it worked to perfection! The downside was that it could only work for short periods of time, so he had to be quick to talk, which was out of character since he had to play the intel 'bot.

He flew over the tallest building in Tranquility and set the voice box around his neck, making it look like a collar. A few press of the buttons and he was ready to go.



"Guys, guys! Shut up!" Charm shouted. "Shut up, he's calling… Hello?"

Like a dream, Starscream's voice device worked better than he believed. Charm had put it on speaker for the others to hear, and all were astounded by how accurate the voice was and how hilarious it was that Starscream would talk this way to a femme to get her out in the open. Charm tried to get them to be quiet, but she was a giving her own snickers that couldn't possibly be held back. Starscream told her to meet at the stadium. Once they disconnected com-links, Charm looked to the team of Autobots, and the one human who wanted to come with. All eight Cassetteicons had sucked in their guts to look ready.

"Who's up for a blind date?" Charm smirked. What Starscream didn't know was that the Autobots made a few devices themselves…



"She should've been here twenty clicks ago!" the Seeker complained. "What's taking her so long?" Starscream was positioned in an area of the stadium where not even a human would notice him. Oblivious due to the shadows. He heard a familiar sound of a turbine engine fly overhead and land in the middle of a lit stadium. It transformed into the sliver Seeker he knew as Soundwave's bond-mate, Charm.

"About time," he snarled. He stepped out into the light to let Charm see him. The seeker gasped (rather fake) and stepped backwards.

"Starscream?" she breathed.

"Charm," the air commander smirked.

"Yes?" said another voice. Starscream looked to the side to see another femme, _that looked exactly like Charm_. Her face mask, visor, slender body, wings, voice, everything was the exact duplicate!

"No…no, it can't be!" the seeker shouted. He heard another turbine sound, followed by a third Charm doppelganger join the other two. "Get away from me!"

One of the Charm's laughed. This was getting way too fun! Seeing a mech yelp the way Starscream did was always the most funniest thing. She looked to one of her copies. "This is going good, huh, 'Bee?"

"Shush, Jazz! We're still undercover!" the clone hissed. "Ironhide, where are the others?"

"Ratchet said he'd be here right about…now!" A fourth fake Charm flew down from the sky and stopped Starscream from escaping. The seeker let out another terrified scream and stepped backwards until he was surrounded by four female seekers, all laughing at him. How could this be? How many Charms could there _possibly be?!_

"Starscream," said the well-known, monotonous voice. The commander turned around to find Soundwave standing between two Charms, his face hidden under the covers.

"You!" Starscream grunted. He was about to tackle the officer when the Ratchet Charm hit him hard on the back, making him fall to the dirt ground. Soundwave took a few steps closer and knelt down to talk.

"Challenge: guess which one is the real Charm. Reward: You may kill her. Punishment if incorrect: I get to kick your aft and you leave Charm and me alone. Understood?"

Starscream didn't have any words to say, but nodded his head. Under the mask, Soundwave smirked. None of these Charms were the actual one, so the officer had the pleasure of beating the temporary leader regardless of his answer.

"It's that one. No, wait! That one!" Starscream tried desperately to find out which was the right Charm. They looked so alike! There was no flaw in any of them!

"Clock's ticking, Starscream!" Frenzy said as he and his brother appeared out of their boss's chest plate.

"Hurry up or you'll be beaten back to Cybertron," Rumble continued.

"Possibly further," Frenzy teased. The twins gave each other a high-five. Starscream started to shake, his mind going blank. For a second he forgot what he was actually doing and had to think hard about which was the right Charm. His head spun wildly out of all the confusion and made him nearly faint, but he didn't want to give these bottom-feeders the satisfaction.

"Ten seconds on the clock!" Rumble shouted, just to put pressure on the seeker. It worked like a charm and Starscream admitted defeat.

"I give up!" he screamed. Soundwave reacted immediately and punched the seeker right in the face. Before the air commander could stand up again, Soundwave gave him another blow and kicked him while he was down. Rumble and Frenzy jumped o top of Starscream and started pulling on some wires so that he wouldn't fly right hen he got out of it. The fake Charms shouted and encouraged like a true audience as the twins kept hurting the poor seeker as he tried to get them off. Every attempt failed and Starscream's wires were pulled out of his system so hard that it would be easy to get tangled. Rumble even switched out his arms to bang against the large seeker's chest, just to see his reaction.

"Cease," Soundwave ordered his cassettes. The brothers groaned in protest, but as they climbed off, Frenzy gave Starscream one last kick on the wing. "Leave, Starscream."

The short-term Decepticon leader gave no hesitation as he scrambled from the ground and transformed, flying back to the base. The Autobots let down their holographic projectors and started giving each other high-fives.

"Who da bomb!" Bumblebee shouted.

"We da bomb!" Jazz whooped. Rumble started playing _Let It Rock _just for the heck of it and made a couple of the Autobots, and his own master, let out a laugh.

"Is that the last of it?" Ironhide asked.

"Negative," Soundwave answered. A groan came from Bumblebee's direction. "Starscream never gives up that easily. He will be back. Count on it."

xXx

Author's Note: You heard right! This ain't the end of it! Some questions will pop into that head of yours with a high possibility of being "Will Optimus Prime accept Soundwave now?", "What will Starscream do next?" and maybe even some small questions like "Will Rumble and Frenzy ever get their girls?" XD


	9. I Just Want Love

_Take me now, baby, here as I am. Hold me close and try to understand. Desire is hunger, it's the fire I breathe. Love is a banquet, on which we feed.  
Come on now, try and understand the way I feel when I'm in your hands. Take me hand, come undercover. They can't hurt you now, can't hurt you now, can't hurt you now...  
Because the night belongs to lovers. Because the night belongs to lust. Because the night belongs to lovers. Because the night belongs to us._

Because The Night by Cascada

.

Chapter IX

The Autobots and Soundwave rolled up in their vehicle forms as they got back to base. Frenzy kept talking inside his master saying how much Sky Light might reward him for being a hero. Rumble had to disagree with his brother's logic, although he wanted Star to do the same to him. He said that Soundwave played the good part in making the plan and scaring off Starscream. The Autobots just shouted through their com-links to tell them to shut the slag up and they obeyed instantly. For while it seemed strange having the silence between the trouble makers, but they started up the conversation again, only Rumble decided to agree this time.

"Maybe they might even kiss us!" he said.

"Better: merge!" Frenzy joked. The brothers cheered, followed with some disgusted groans by Ironhide. Bumblebee chuckled, Ratchet paid no attention, and Jazz sort gave out a hint of encouragement for them.

Charm was the first they saw coming into the base. She was watching as Shocker, Techno, and Sam were playing poker and guess who kept winning.

"I swear, this guy cheats!" Sam shouted, pointing his hand at Shocker. Shocker chuckled as he took the fake money away from Sam.

"You have any proof?" he laughed. Techno hit his brother on the side of the head.

"Because you're the one dealing the cards!" he said. "You may be stupid, but you're smart enough to organize those cards so you can have the better hands!"

"Liar!"

"Says the first!" Techno put down his cards and jumped on Shocker. They rolled around for a bit, trying to hit the other. Sam was encouraging the green cassette, and Charm had laughed for a bit until she realized how badly they were actually hurting each other.

"Okay, break it up, boys," she said. They didn't hear her, so she tried again. "HEY!" The shout echoed across the room, making the boys stop and stand up straight in front of their mistress.

"Sorry, milady," they said in unison. Techno shot another glare at his brother. The blue mech took a step to the side and kept wondering if Techno might jump him in his stasis.

"I don't feel like cleaning up a bunch of energon," Charm said. "Besides, we have a guest! Be polite, will you?"

Soundwave snuck up from behind Charm and softly put his hands over her optics. She gave out a small gasp once her vision had gone, then smiled to realize the childish game Soundwave decided to play.

"Back already, big guy?" she giggled. Soundwave removed his hands to let her turn around. She stood up from where she was and placed her arms around his neck, giving him a hug. "So tell me, what did he look like?"

"I'll tell ya, the guy was _freaked_!" Jazz stated. He made the face of Starscream's reaction towards the "Charms" and started to laugh. "Man, I wished we had more time ta beat him up."

"Good idea though," Sam spoke up, "using the projectors and all, Soundwave." He turned towards Frenzy. "Hey, did you record it like I asked?"

Frenzy tapped his head. "All up here, man!"

"But then again, there might be nothing up there," Sky Light joked to her sister inside of Charm, still. Star giggled and Charm told the both of them to be quiet. Soundwave put his arms around her waist and held them there so she would have no chance of escape. Ironhide interrupted by walked past them and growling. Charm looked a the mech with a weird look. She looked down to her male cassettes and they started whispering to each other about Ironhide's reaction.

"He must be upset because he doesn't have Chromia right now," Charm concluded.

"Did you say Chromia?' Soundwave said, sounding a little worried. Charm looked into the visor of her mech and could tell he might've done something.

"Yeah, Ironhide's girlfriend. Why? Is there something wrong? Oh no! They didn't break up, did they?!"

"I will tell you later," he groaned. He nuzzled the side of her face, since he couldn't kiss her with that damned mask. He let go of her and followed Ironhide to Optimus' quarters to help give the report. Charm looked down at Techno and Shocker. They were still talking amongst themselves and Sam leaned in to try and hear them. Frenzy and Rumble joined them and also whispered. Shocked faces came across them and they shouted.

"Are you serious?!" Techno shouted.

"Why didn't he say so?!" Shocker yelled.

"What?" Charm was all too interested to know. Frenzy turned around and told her to come closer. Charm leaned down so her audio was near his mouth and he whispered.

"Soundwave killed Chromia."

Charm stepped backwards. Soundwave destroyed Ironhide's first and only love? The black mech and the blue femme had known each other for years and both had met in the academy. Charm saw them with each other a while and her cassettes made some predictions that he might marry her right after graduation. But Chromia told them that they didn't want to rush too fast into anything. (Which was the way to avoid a quick divorce.)

"Why did he?" she dared to ask, tears coming from behind her visor.

"Hello! Boss was a Decepticon! He couldn't remember anybody!" Rumble said. "The only reason we remember is…Well, I ain't so sure."

Charm knew the answer. She knew it back when Soundwave remembered her again. Like I said, Mini-cons were connected to their masters. Rumble, Frenzy, Laserbeak, and Ravage remembered Charm and her cassettes because Soundwave's memories were hidden deep inside his mind. She just had to pry them loose for him.

Still, the seeker had a hard time believing that Soundwave could've killed Chromia. And Ironhide didn't even know it! Or did he really? If he had known, he might've killed Soundwave if he had the chance. Possibly go crazy with rage. So it looks like the black mech never knew about Chromia's death. Charm could never imagine how he would feel if he found out.



Soundwave was laying on his berth when Charm walked in. His first reaction was to look at her as she walked over. The seeker femme only stood there, looking at him. With Soundwave's patience now the size of a peanut, he sat up, grabbed her by the waist (causing her to yelp), and brought her down over his body. A couple of cheers came from the Cassetteicons' side of the room as Charm looked at him with a shocked expression. Something came over Soundwave that made him do that. Well, whatever it was, she liked it.

"Kiss me," he said. Charm started to blush a bit and nodded to her head to signal it was okay for him to remove the visor and mask. He did so quickly and asked for her to do the same. Charm did it slowly though, just to make him tense up. She knew by doing this that it would give Soundwave an adrenaline rush and want to kiss her uncountable times and for Primus knows how long. And that's what happened.

Soundwave pushed her body to the side and he pinned himself above her. More cheers and whistles from their Cassetteicons. Soundwave started kissing her almost violently, but eased a bit when he felt her fingers almost digging into him to try and restrain a scream. With all of this going on, they hardly noticed a yellow mech witnessing the affection.

"What in Primus name--?" he started out. Soundwave stopped kissing Charm for a brief amount of time and looked over his shoulder to Bumblebee. At first the scout was confused. "Who's this guy?" he asked, not knowing it was Soundwave. Charm was the only one who had ever seen him without the full mask and it was strange to see the Decepticon like this. And on top of the yellow 'bot's friend of all things.

To give Bumblebee a hint, Charm kissed the side of Soundwave's face and smiled at Bumblebee. The mech gave a face of realization and his mouth formed a small O. He looked to the Cassetteicons standing nearby and the six of them with hands motioned for him to leave. The Autobot took the hint and closed the door. Outside the door you could hear Ratchet and him talking.

"What's going on in there?" the ambulance asked.

"Kid making," Bumblebee answered simply. Their footsteps resided and Soundwave looked back at Charm.

"Buzz-kill," he said, followed by a laugh. Charm couldn't help but do the same as he started kissing her neck.

"Jeez, when did you become so fun?" she asked.

"I always was," he answered. "I never had you around to show it to." Before she had an opportunity to say something back, Soundwave's hands contoured against her midsection and down further. He gave her aft a firm squeeze that made her yelp. Soundwave's head moved backwards to see her face and gave a satisfied smile. The Cassetteicons "ooh"ed and laughed and whistled.

"Oh no he di'int!" Sky Light shouted. Frenzy moved closer to the blue femme. He put an arm around her waist and smiled to her.

"You know, it's kinda giving me ideas," he chuckled as he lightly brushed the edge of her midsection with his fingertips. Sky Light glared at him and then looked to her mistress. Charm was too busy trying to figure out what was wrong with Soundwave so she didn't get a chance to ask her to beat the tar out of the red mech standing next to her.

"Move, boi," she growled. Frenzy started whining.

"Just one kiss!" he said.

"No! Outside, now!"

Frenzy obeyed orders and left with Sky Light to go outside the base, Shocker and Techno following (they just didn't want to see their mistress and Soundwave making out). Star and Rumble watched as she dragged him outside and closed the door softly so they wouldn't scare their masters. Rumble started moving closer to Star and also put an arm around her.

"I'm the subtle one," he whispered in her audio. Star snapped her head to look at him and he gave a small smile.

"You expect me to believe that?" she said. Rumble shrugged and placed his other arm around her front to give her a hug. He pulled her in closer, chest-to-chest, making her look up at his red visor. It looked all too much like Soundwave's that he might as well be the actual sparkling.

"I always ask permission," he smiled. Star couldn't help but let out a nervous chuckle as she removed Rumble's visor. His eyes matched his smile and made her head spin. Why was Rumble all of a sudden so hot?

"Permission granted, officer," she giggled. Rumble chuckled deeply. She made that word sound so _good_! His body heated up intensely as he pulled in for his first kiss.

Outside of the base, Frenzy tried to apologize to Sky Light on how he acted just then. Sky Light just kept her back turned towards him and her arms crossed over her chest. She had always known Frenzy to be a pain and there wasn't anything he would do to change her mind. So she thought.

Frenzy grabbed her arm so she could turn around and look at him. He removed his visor so she could see the apology in his grey optics. He took her hands into his and tried hard to say he was sorry. Sky Light felt a slight bit of pity. Well, she _had_ been a little mean over the years. But he was just so immature that she could hardly stand to be near him. She snatched her hands from his grasp and went back to her original position.

"Please? I was a jerk, I admit it!" Frenzy cried, now on his knees. Sky Light only had her head turned to see the funny picture. "I'm sorry for every slagging moment that I've been so stupid and so wrong. I just wanted your attention, and now I want your love. But you won't let me get it!" The red mech started crying. He looked down to the ground so she wouldn't look.

The light blue femme sighed. At times she found a crying male kind of cute and made her think that the guy was sensitive enough to understand females. Letting the her logic take over, she bent down towards Frenzy. He had his eyes closed so that she wouldn't see anymore tears. Sky Light giggled.

"Open up there, Frenz," she said. The red mech obeyed and slowly opened up his optics. They started overflowing a bit and he rubbed his hand against them to stop. He looked at the blue femme before him. Sky Light; the femme he only felt a feeling for. She would pass by and he would try to see if she was actually smiling at him for a change. Just to get her attention he did everything Sky Light considered obnoxious. He thought that he was paying for it now, but the smile on her face made him think twice.

"You really want that kiss, don't you?" she asked. Frenzy nodded his head and sniffed, trying to get the last of the tears away. "If I do this, will you promise not to be such a burden anymore?"

"Yes! I'll even leave you alone for as long as you want. I just wanna kiss you!"

Sky Light couldn't help it much longer. Frenzy practically _beg_ged her for a kiss. As for Frenzy, he tried to tell what she was saying with those gorgeous eyes of hers. When you're in love, you don't know where in hell you are. That's how the red 'bot felt. Those eyes always got him. He'd take a look and wondered how stupid his face must've looked or what he might've said that made her turn away so he wouldn't see her face anymore. His world went into a spin and shifted each time he saw her. Damn it, this was love!

"Just one," she said, coming in to kiss him. Frenzy's spark rate increased a thousand times as her lips met his. Quickly, he put his arms around her and pulled her down with him to the ground. She nearly yelped in surprise as she was being pinned down to the ground. The red mech kept his chest close to hers and both could feel their beats in the same time, the same rhythm. They matched.

Sky Light felt overwhelming urge to keep the kiss going. Just like Frenzy, she wanted love. There were just never much guys her size to go out with. Rumble and Frenzy were _it_. All this time she had been looking for the "right guy" to come up to her. She believed in that usual stuff about knowing right then and there who the guy or girl for you is. That kiss probably changed her entire perspective on Frenzy.

As for our little, red mech, he had no clue _what _to think! His chest being against hers was probably the only thing from keeping his spark from jumping out of his chamber. And her taste? Primus, why did girls have to be so sexy? The light inside of her washed over to him and Frenzy could feel that Decepticon darkness slip away. Was that how Soundwave was feeling, too? Heck, he didn't care. All he knew was that he was finally kissing his favorite femme. Little did both know about the brothers that were watching.

"Man, this is so gross!" Shocker groaned. "That guy's gonna pay for kissing my sister. He practically jumped her, you saw it!"

"I saw it," Techno growled. "That sonuva glitch…He's gonna wish Soundwave had never even _got_ the idea of having cassettes."



Two mechs, two femmes, in the same room, doing the same exact thing. Except two were on a berth and the other two had to suck it up and stand where they were. Soundwave had nearly smothered Charm with kisses, and whenever he allowed her to breathe, he would go on and kiss her neck or her forehead. Once Charm could open her eyes, she had to think about where she really was. She didn't know if she was back home, at the Autobot base on Earth, or just some hit and miss spot by coming through a quiet space bridge. As soon as she reached her conclusion, Soundwave had kissed her mouth again, making her go back to figuring out where they were.

Star couldn't tell, either. Every time she had closed her eyes, she pictured her and Rumble somewhere else. She didn't know the exact details of where they were, all she knew was that they weren't in reality. The red-black femme could sense some of that Decepticon energy slipping away as she continued to kiss him. Rumble would give out a couple of muffled hums of satisfaction and hold her closer. And she couldn't really tell, but there was a song playing inside of Rumble that she could hear very clearly. It wasn't too romantic, no. But it was enough to make her giggle.

_You opened up the door, I felt that I could die for you. In your eyes I saw more than life could ever take me through. You're the girl in red. Please take my hand, I wanna share my world with you. You're my girl in red, my candy maid, the only one I feel so true. You're the girl in red._

She never heard that song before, but now it was one of her favorites. She practically downloaded the dong from him during the kiss. Feeling it, Rumble laughed and kept on kissing her. Unfortunately, the laugh was too much and they had to let go.

"You sly little thing!" he teased. Star giggled. She tried to pull in for another kiss (Primus, it was good!) to download the rest, but Rumble couldn't stop laughing. Soundwave found it a bit irritating, but Charm stopped him from growling by turning his head back towards hers. He sighed and spoke.

"Give me a sparkling, a daughter, that looks just like you," he whispered. Charm shrugged a bit.

"Eh, I was kinda hoping for a boy." Soundwave started laughing and moved his head down towards her neck.

"But I want a femme," he said.

"Listen to the future wife; I wanna boy."

"Girl."

"Boy."

"Female."

"Male."

"Femme."

"Mech."

"Give me a good argument."

Charm thought about it for a bit. "Well, if the boy's like you, he won't be a sexual predator until he's in the same bed as his girlfriend and he knows she's the right one. Now give me your side of the debate, good sir."

"If the girl is anything like you, she will be tough enough to take care of herself, smart enough to know anything, and will stay beautiful the rest of her life."

Charm shivered at the words. She knew that Soundwave was actually talking about her. Tough, smart, beautiful; is that what he thought? For years that's all she ever wanted a mech to say and Soundwave knew just how to say it.

"Boy," she muttered.

"Girl!" Soundwave laughed.

"FOR PRIMUS' SAKE!" Rumble shouted, letting go of his kisses towards Star and looking angrily at the 'bots in bed. "The hell?! Charm, give the boss a girl, will ya?"

"Ooh! I wanna be the godmother!" Star said, raising her hand up to get attention. Soundwave only looked at the two Cassetteicons, having Rumble give a dirty look back. Without letting go of the gaze, the small mech put his arms back around Star to pull her closer again. Soundwave looked back at Charm.

"Whatever Primus decides," he said. Charm giggled and let him come in for more of what she could give.

xXx

Author's Note: Just thought I'd give everyone a bit of love right now. They needed it, the poor dears... Especially the cassettes. Too bad Ravage and Laserbeak don't have any.

Song: The Girl In Red  
Artist: Daddy DJ

I sort of got obessed to that song once I heard it. That was all I listened to last Saturday!


	10. Orders from the Boss

Chapter X

"Those accursed Autobots!" Starscream shouted as he pounded on the wall. Skywarp took a few steps back (if his fellow Seeker decided to take on a real punching bag) and Thundercracker just watched on with his arms crossed. "I should've known! Holographic images! And they knew it was going to be me! Soundwave has betrayed us. Betrayed his own kind. Disgusting. Of everything that would've happened, _Soundwave _joins the enemy. The organic protectors!"

"I bet that he'll pass out from exhaustion in about three mega-cycles," Thundercracker whispered to Skywarp.

"I'll match for two," he replied.

"SILENCE!" Starscream yelled. His ability nearly shot out and took off Skywarp's head. The purple Seeker was only lucky that he was able to see it coming and hit the deck. "We need to devise another plan!"

"But we can't do anymore with just three of us!" Skywarp complained, getting up from the floor. "They've got Soundwave, now." Starscream growled at the mention of the intelligence officer's name. It hit him then of what they had to do.

"Contact the Insecticons," he ordered.

"_Those_ bugs?!" Thundercracker whined. "C'mon! We can do better!"

"What I say here _goes_!" Starscream shouted, then continued. "Astrotrain's with them, so he's coming as well. Whether he likes it or not! GET THEM NOW!"



Charm's optics refused to open. She didn't want to wake up. The warmth she had right now was too great for her to let go. With enough strength, she moved her hand, which brushed across Soundwave's shoulder and down to his lower arm. She felt his head move a bit and looked to see. The visor and mask were still off, which made him look so much more vulnerable. The morning sun displayed the smoothness of his face and gentleness of his lips. This was the real Soundwave.

On the other side of the room, Rumble was laying on top of Star, which was a pretty funny sight, to be told truthfully. His head was on her midsection and the only thing that held it there was Star's right hand. Both of Rumble's arm's were slipped under her body as if he was using her body as a pillow. And Star, like her mistress, was the first to actually wake up. Her eyes opened fully and she looked down at the sleeping blue mech. She smiled, admiring how cute he seemed. Thank Primus none of the cassettes could snore; that would ruin the whole thing.

"Wake up, Rumble," she sang. Rumble moaned a bit, a slight smile on his face, and he moved his body off of hers so he could get a glance at his femme.

"Mornin', pretty girl," he said, smiling. That was probably the best smile anyone had ever seen on the blue 'bot's face. Star giggled a bit and Rumble moved forward to give her a kiss. She refused by moving her head to the side. "What's wrong?"

"Morning breath," she said. Rumble groaned and buried his face into her chest.

"Slaggit!" he mumbled. Star began to laugh. She wiggled out from his weight and managed to stand up. Her vision went funny for a second, since she stood up so fast, then it became clear. Star took her arms and tried to make Rumble sit up straight. But, dang, he was heavy!

"How much do you _eat_?" she asked once his body was upright.

"Enough to get me around," he answered. Without any form of warning, he grabbed her waist and made her sit down on his lap. Star giggled a bit and leaned her head against his chest. Rumble held it in place with his hand and wrapped his other arm around her body to hug her.

Charm tried her won method of waking up her lover. She knew that he wasn't used to people touching his face, so she attempted that. Soundwave shivered a bit, but in the best way; a smile actually formed on his white face. He turned his head and opened his eyes, flashing colors of red and blue. Mostly blue; mostly Autobot.

"Good morning, Charm," he whispered. His voice sounded like air whenever he did that. "Sleep well, my sweet?" Okay, he's doing that on purpose.

"Best one yet," she smiled. Soundwave smiled back and kissed her on the forehead.

"You're blushing," he chuckled.

Charm tried to hide her face into his chest, but it was hard since he already seen her. Now he was laughing, and thank Primus it wasn't loudly. He started rubbing his hand up and down her back to try and get her to show her face again.

"Look at me?" he asked, still a bit of giggle left in him.

Charm decided to give it a go and looked back up at him, a puppy look almost growing on her. Soundwave stopped his laughing and simply smiled. That morning sunshine--should I say more?--brightly glowed on him. Frag it, why did he have to be so good-looking? And she had no clue what to say!

Seems that our little intel 'bot had nothing to say either. He was still so captivated by her looks that he even forgot where he was. He heard that femmes were equipped with the power to overcome a mech in an emotional way. But he's proved a lot of fellow soldiers wrong. And then comes Charm; a dear, lost friend to him, and now his one, only, true love.



"You fragging little thief, thief!" Shrapnel screeched. "That energon was rightfully mine, mine!" Bombshell didn't care, not a bit. He was hungry, dang it! He needed to eat _some_thing. The cerebro-minded mech blocked the energon cube away from the beetle with his body.

"Go find some other energon!" he growled. "Survival of the fittest!"

"Survival of the skillful, skillful!" Shrapnel shouted. He jumped on top of Bombshell and reached for the energon cube. Somehow all three Insecticons were stuck on the deserted planet. Astrotrain was on his way over to Earth to help in the battle to control Earth when he was stuck in a solar storm and ended up the same place as the bug 'bots. The triple-changer would have traded those three for anybody, even Starscream…Wow, those Insecticons really _were _annoying.

"This is mine!" Bombshell screamed, holding the energon away with one hand and trying to shove Shrapnel with the other. "You can't have it!"

Bombshell dropped the cube, making it bounce all the way to Kickback's feet. The grasshopper picked it up, looked at the brawling bugs, then sipped the energon. Astrotrain sat on top of a rock nearby. He never thought in his life cycle this would happen. This planet was nothing but blue rock and ice! And he was stuck here with those…_things_!

"Mine, mine, mine, mine!" Shrapnel roared, punching Bombshell with each word out of his mouth. Astrotrain sighed, decided he heard enough, then separated the two mechs.

"Quit acting like sparklings!" he ordered. "I'm sure there's better things to do than fight over food!"

"Mm. That's were you're wrong," Kickback said after a sip. "We're isolated."

"Thanks for the back-up, you brainless bug."

"One more crack, I dare ya!" Kickback threw the energon and stood ready to attack the triple-changer. As for the other two, they chased after their energon.

"Insufferable insect," the 'bot smirked.

"That's _it_! C'mere!" Kickback transformed and pounced on the purple mech. They struggled just as much as Shrapnel and Bombshell, and a little more. A small amount of energon blood was shed, just in time to receive a communication signal from outside of Earth's atmosphere.

_Yo, choo-choo brain! Was up!_

"Cut the scrap, Skywarp," Astrotrain groaned, shoving a tired Kickback off his body. He stood up to walked around to see if he could get a better signal. "Where are you? And where am _I_?"

_Accordin' ta this, you're on Pluto. Some planet _way _far away from Earth._

"You mean to tell me that I was in the same solar system the _whole time_?!"

_Uh, yeah. Pretty much._

Astrotrain growled loudly into the audio. How long had he been stuck here? Let's see, ever since Barricade gave out the message of a recon to Earth to find the All Spark and Megatron, which was about, oh, four months ago maybe? That's how long he had to put up with the slag the Insecticons gave him.

"You could've called me a long time ago! I was stuck here on an energon-deprived planet and three mech bugs!"

_Sorry, Thomas Train Engine, but we forgot all about ya!_

"JUST GIVE ME THE FRAGGING COORDINATES!!!" Astrotrain roared.

_Alright, relax! Jeez…You're worse than Thundercracker._

The coordinate points were given to him immediately. Astrotrain would've left the Insecticons to their brawling, until Starscream got into the link.

_I know what you're thinking, Astrotrain. Bring the Insecticons with you. Alive, mind you._

"Why? All they do is fight."

_Soundwave's a traitor, Astrotrain! He left the Decepticon flanks for an Autobot female!_

"Why in Pit would he do _that_? That doesn't sound like Soundwave at all!"

_Exactly why we need him eliminated. Both femme and Soundwave._

"What's the girl's name?"

_She goes by Charm…Stop laughing!_

"Sorry! Ha-ha! Just thinking of Soundwave with some femme is just pure gold! I'm talking electrum gold! Ha, ha, ha, _ha_!"

_Silence you fragger! I want both those 'bots offline as soon as possible! I don't care what method you use. I just want them terminated! Understand?!_

"Who died and made _you_ leader?"

_Hpmh. Good news, Astro. I'm the new leader. Megatron's _offlined_!_

The triple-changer had no time to respond when Starscream cut the link--what part of "good news" is Starscream being the Decepticon leader of? He sighed and looked back at the three insects. Shrapnel was perched on top of a large rock, Bombshell and Kickback climbing up after him to get that energon cube.

"Hey, you three! Orders from the _boss_: We're going to Earth," Astrotrain announced. Before he could say any more, Shrapnel interrupted.

"But we're stuck here, here. How does Megatron expect us to get to Earth, Earth?"

"You didn't let me finish, you little cockroach! Megatron's dead, Starscream's taking over now. Soundwave double-crossed us and now we're told to go and kill him."

"Say nothing more!" Kickback said, jumping off the rock. "I would do _any_thing for a fight!"

xXx

Author's Note: Ya know, ever sonce I've found out about the Insecticons, I've grown on them...(As you may notice in my Home or Prison story) So this chapter, I know, is a bit short. But I'm freaking tired right now! I just got done drawing a picture of Bumblebee for this boy in school and it took me **four hours **to finish! Extra twenty for inking, ten for erasing pencil markings...I shall go put it up on deviant...Peace.


	11. Nostalgia

Chapter XI

"It's eleven in the morning, you two!" Sam shouted from outside the bedroom. "I'm sure you guys had a pleasant night, don't know what you were doing, I don't _wanna _know, but I'm sure it was fantastic. Now get up! We've got a downtown area ta clean!"

Charm groaned. She remembered that little fight that happened, the one when Soundwave finally got his memory back. So many building tops had been destroyed because of two Seekers and a road ripped up from Soundwave and her sparring. Now it was Autobot responsibility to clean it back up.

"I've never heard of a teen boy so eager to clean up," Rumble joked. "I betcha right now his mom would say 'Why can't you be like this towards your room? There's a pile of clothes in your bedroom that comes in second place as the highest peak in the world!'" Star began to laugh a little bit. Rumble even did a woman-voice imitation, which the made the joke funnier.

Soundwave started moving under Charm, causing her to stand up off the berth and stretch a bit. Soundwave just shook his head to get the sleep out and put on his masks again. The femme wished that he wouldn't hide so much, but he was used to having those on. She remembered that first time she saw him; the memory he received first when she asked him to remember. Soundwave was just getting into the middle of his sparkling years. He didn't have any friends back then. Because of his monotonous voice, people ostracized him and did everything they could to avoid him. At that point, Soundwave figured he had enough people giving him looks, telling him no each time he wanted to join in the game others were playing, and made fun of just because of how he sounded. Because of that, he made a face mask and a visor to hide himself away.

Right then, Soundwave wanted to commit suicide. He knew nobody would care if he was gone. He knew they probably wouldn't even notice. Possibly be happier if he disappeared. Maybe the next day there would be word going around about an unknown child who had killed himself for whatever reason. So Soundwave stood on top of the building, over at the edge, and was ready to take the first step until a voice behind him had shouted. He turned to see a light purple girl with wings and beautiful, large eyes, so curious and thoughtful. A shocked expression was written clearly on her as she walked up to him and held out her hand. She asked him what he was going to do, but he gave no answer. Behind that mask was a wave of rage, but it was mostly an intuition of when she would start making fun of him. He lived so long of people doing that he thought she would do the same. So she asked for his name, but he snapped back and asked for hers first.

"I like your voice," she giggled. Soundwave's emotion of hatred changed to slightly shocked. The first person to say that they didn't mind his voice was a femme. And such a pretty one. "My name's Charm. What's yours?"

"S-Soundwave," he stuttered.

"Wanna be friends, Soundwave?" Could that smile on her get any bigger? She sounded honest enough, so the blue 'bot decided to give it a try.

"Response: yes."

The tiny Charm giggled. "You're so funny! We're gonna be friends for a long time!"

Too bad Charm didn't foresee the separation caused by Megatron. His trick was simple. He hacked into the academy database to change a few ranks and to change the most certified Autobots into Decepticons. Soundwave: intelligent for his age, best hacker, no emotion, fair grade in combat. He was perfect for any strategical thinking and planning. (It was amazing how he didn't end up second in command.) Changing the statistics, Soundwave was kicked out immediately after graduation. Charm had no idea where he had ended up, but he was on the second half of Cybertron; the Decepticon side. He only wandered around for a while, looking at all the scavenging mechs, looking for a bite to eat. The blue mech was on high alert. He stared around, looking at the shadows, expecting a Decepticon to come out and attack him. Once a hand was placed on his shoulder from behind, Soundwave grabbed it and flipped the mech over.

"My, my, they said you were strong. I just didn't expect you to nearly break me in half!" said the 'bot. He was purple-colored, but not like Charm. He was darker and had a solitary golden optic placed on a black, invisible face.

"Question: Where am I?" said the monotone Soundwave. The mech stood up and brushed the dust off his chest plating.

"Well, if you took that visor off, I'm sure you'd know," the mech said sarcastically. "You're on the other side of Cybertron, young one. My name is Shockwave. And no need to tell me yours, I know all about you."

"How?"

"You'll know in time. Follow me."

Soundwave figured he had no choice. He was the only Autobot around for miles and miles. If he tried to escape, he would probably die. But this Shockwave character said "they" already gave him information about him. He'd use those statistics against him and take him down in no time flat.

They walked for quite some time now, not one saying anything to the other. There were Decepticons crawling the place. And since not one part of the area looked as neat and clean as the Autobot residences, it seemed like they were animals. They would fight for anything.

"Sir, I have Soundwave as you commanded," Shockwave said as soon as they reached the center of the hellhole.

"Good, bring him in," said the voice over the link. Dark and sinister, how else would you expect it to sound? His Cassetteicons inside trembled at it and told him to run, to go back and find Charm. Run to safety. Soundwave argued and said that Autobots don't ever run from battle. Why should this situation be different?

Inside the building was a large lab made of blue-grey steel and tons of rock from other planets. There was a red Seeker standing by a control box and smirking at Soundwave. The blue mech looked over to the other side to see two more Seekers, a blue and a purple, being held from behind their backs by two Decepticons. Soundwave stared at the Seekers' wings to see Autobot symbols plastered on them. As for the red, his was pure Decepticon.

The door behind Shockwave and Soundwave hissed to let in another Autobot captive. He knew this 'bot as a trainee in security. The black and white mech who helped him fight to earn a grade in combat.

Barricade.

"Let me go!" he screamed. "Optimus will destroy all you fragging glitches! The Autobots will win! Cybertron at peace, and your kind gone!" The two Decepticons holding either side of him only laughed and hauled him up into the room. He was now placed near Soundwave, and he was tired from struggling so much. The black mech looked over to him.'

"Soundwave?" he gasped. "Oh, Primus. Soundwave! Charm's worried sick about you!"

"Silence, Autobot!" the red Seeker screamed as he fired a null ray towards Barricade's chest. "I can't wait until your whining shuts off."

"Let me go, Decepti-scum!"

"Nice and feisty, this one," said the one holding his right arm. "He'll be an exceptional grunt."

"No way. Grunts are just brawn and no processor! He's gonna be a trooper. I bet my last chip on it."

"I'll match."

"Just shut up and take him to the cylinder!" the red Seeker shouted. "Megatron's getting impatient. We need the recruits and we need them now!"

The two Decepticons shoved Barricade forward, towards a machine that was, indeed, in the shape of a cylinder. Barricade tried his best to be let loose, but the soldiers shoved him into the machine. The glass barrier closed, locking in the frightened mech. Soundwave and the Autobot Seekers watched as the red Seeker started typing in demands into the controls and looked to see flashing lights inside the machine. Barricade's screams were higher than the groaning the cylinder was making and they stopped just seconds before the contraption was through with its process. The two Decepticons opened up the machine and looked inside. A fist came out and grabbed one of them by the throat.

"Where am I?" Barricade growled. It was more menacing, darkly, and spine-chilling. Barricade was no longer here.

"Perfect!" said the Seeker. "Throw him in with the rest. We'll take care of the others."

Barricade was escorted out of the room, leaving three terrified Autobots in the area. Soundwave heard a shout come from one of the Seekers and looked as he saw the purple one being thrown into the machine. The blue yelled after him.

"Don't let them get to you, Skywarp! Fight 'em off! Don't become a Decepticon!" he shouted.

"Save yourself, Thundercracker! Get outta here!" Before another word, Skywarp was pushed forcefully in the cylinder. After his process, Thundercracker's came up and he shouted to Soundwave to run. The intel 'bot knew he couldn't. There were too many Decepticons around. Thundercracker was thrown out with Skywarp, leaving Soundwave to be the last one. Shockwave was about to force him through, but the blue mech held up a hand.

"I will collaborate," he said. Shockwave nodded and let Soundwave pass through. The mech, on his way in, thought in his head over and over of what might happen. He even tried to say sorry to Charm and his Autobot friends. But he knew he would forget all of it. That's what the gadget was made for.

"I'm sorry, Charm," he whispered. "Forgive me. I love you…"

The transformation was horrific to him. He could feel his spark changing inside of him, filling up with a dark force unimaginable to anyone. His cassettes were screaming and roaring inside of him, also affected by the power. Soundwave's spark pulse pounded in his head and he tried hard to prove his strength by not screaming. And every thought that was Autobot, even the history of his former self, he saw it wipe clean away from his mind. His eyes became a sky blue to a dark red to add to his new Decepticon being.

The machine completed its work and let out the intel 'bot. His legs gave out and he fell to the ground, rolling out of the gadget. He looked up to see a grey and threatening face with bright red eyes stare back down at him. As he spoke, Soundwave could see the jagged teeth of the Decepticon leader.

"Welcome to the ranks, my soldier," he growled softly. Soundwave was now a Decepticon.

"Hey, wake up, boss!" Rumble shouted. Soundwave snapped back from his nostalgia and looked at his blue cassette. "We've got a quarter of a city to wipe up. Let's go!" The blue mech jumped off his master and ran out to meet up with the other cassettes.

"You okay there, Soundwave?" Charm said, stroking his head a bit. Soundwave grabbed it and looked up at her.

"I will be fine," he said. He stood up from the berth and followed her out. Bumblebee and Jazz were already outside the warehouse, waiting on them.

"'_Bout time you two!_" Bumblebee's radio blared. Then his real voice, "Let's go, Prime's already there." He transformed and drove off with Jazz following behind him. Soundwave took a last look at Charm as she took off to the air and he shifted into his Corvette form.

"You don't seem alright, boss," Frenzy said, piling in. "You sick or something?"

"I will be fine," Soundwave repeated. He didn't allow Frenzy to say another word as the tires squealed and he drove off behind the two Autobots.

xXx

Author's Note: What a history, huh? My hand was going crazy with detail! Man, I so wish I was the writer for a Transformer universe! Raise a hand if you agree! *hand up*


	12. Delayed

Chapter XII

Thank Primus for Cybertronian thrusters, otherwise it would've taken Astrotrain and the Insecticons twenty-three years to get to Earth. Several times Shrapnel wanted to stop for a bite to eat, and it seems that Jupiter was filthy rich in energon. Too bad some of the gases were poisonous to Cybertron alloy. Astrotrain told him to hold in the hunger until they landed. As soon as they did, they ended up in Saudi Arabia and Shrapnel started looking for the nearest oil company.

"Primus slag it!" Astrotrain shouted, ignoring the people that were shooting primitive bullets at him. "We're nearly halfway around the planet! We're supposed to be in North America!"

"Then you need to get your systems updated," Kickback chuckled. Astrotrain threw a punch at him, making the bug fall backwards into a whole parking lot full of cars.

"Stop talking for at least five cycles!" he yelled. "I need to think."

"The most you've done in years," Bombshell giggled. Astrotrain turned to give out another punch, but the beetle dodged it and ran after Shrapnel to find his own oil. The triple-changer sighed and rubbed his head. Maybe he should have followed Shrapnel for just a sip or two. His thoughts broke when he picked up on a long-distance call from near his location over to United States, Nevada. He used his translation modification system to understand what the man was saying.

_Decepticon invasion, here in Arabia! Help us, Optimus Prime!_

The Autobots were coming? Well, guess they didn't need a good navigation system after all. All they needed to do was wait. And during that, Astrotrain ran off to find a good source of high-grade oil.

Soundwave and Ironhide started hauling out broken pieces of the buildings and Charm started helping out by lifting up new pieces to the top, with Bumblebee heating them into place. Jazz was told to stand guard in case any more Decepticons came by, which irritated him. Jazz was more of an action mech than a stand-around kind of guy. To make the time go away, he turned on his "inner MP3", as he called it, and listened to some of his songs. He had quite a variety of them, actually. It could range from bluegrass to techno to rap to rock. Ask him a song, he'll sing it. Propose to him to be a DJ at your next birthday party, he'll be more than happy to.

His music was interrupted when Prime called him over on com-link. He told him to get to Hawthorne Air Base to load up into a crater ship to Arabia. Decepticon activity.

"On it, boss 'bot," Jazz said. He turned to the hard-working mechs and femme. "Yo, orders from Prime. We got ourselves a couple a bogies over in de Mid East. Les roll!" Jazz transformed into his Solstice car and rolled on away from the city. Charm flew after him and the other 'bots went into a high-speed chase towards him. Bumblebee wanted to race Soundwave, just for fun, but the blue mech said he didn't feel like it. Sam, for one, wasn't so sure which decision to root for.

"Aw, come on!" Rumble groaned. "Let's show him how it's done; the _right_ way!" There was a few other cheers from Ravage, Laserbeak, and Frenzy, all encouraging Soundwave to go for it. The intel 'bot could understand how they felt. Everything to them in the Decepticon ranks was rules, rules, and more rules. They didn't do anything fun, and if they did, they would get punished for it.

"One race," Soundwave agreed. The cassettes roared out with cheers, followed by some from Jazz and Charm. Ratchet laughed a little bit, Ironhide grunted and softly cursed under his breath (wishing the sound would stop), then Bumblebee's engines roared. Sam put on his seat belt, prayed to God, then waited as the yellow mech's tires squealed against the concrete and made them zoom forward as if they were on _Fast and Furious_.

"Speed limit, 'Bee! There's a speed limit!" the teenager squealed. Bumblebee laughed.

"We're kinda in a hurry anyway!" he laughed. "Doesn't matter, then, does it?"

"We're gonna die!"

Bumblebee kept laughing and increased his speed a bit more. Soundwave pulled up next to him, having said nothing. The Cassetteicons were the rowdy ones on his side. They cheered so loudly it nearly blew his circuitry. He didn't bother to tell them to stop. He went ahead and let the young 'bots have their fun. (Although Laserbeak's screeching was on his last wiring.)

"You can't beat me, Soundwave!" Bumblebee teased. "I'm the fastest mech on Cybertron! What makes Earth any different?"

Soundwave had half a mind to blow up the youngling, but figured out that was his remaining Decepticon side trying to assume control again. The urge was building inside him and the cassettes could feel it. Anyone could tell because they stop cheering and told Soundwave "Don't do it!"

"You're so close to being an Autobot! Don't back down now!" Frenzy shouted.

"Not to mention we'll be taken away from Sky Light and Star again!" Rumble whined. "And what about Charm? How would she feel if you took out one of her best friends?"

The blue mech knew they right both right. To ignore his Decepticon personality, he forfeited the race and slowed down. Bumblebee started gloating, and Sam pounded his fists to the wheel as to give 'Bee a congratulations.

"What's the matter, Soundwave?" the yellow mech teased. "Can't handle the speed?"

"Eat the dust, bitch!" Sam shouted through 'Bee's com-link. Both man and his car laughed as they sped on ahead towards the air base. Now that those two were gone, everything was quiet.

"Why did you back down?" Ratchet asked him. "You could have won."

"Death of Bumblebee imminent," the mech replied sadly. He could tell by the silence that the medic was pondering this.

"It's not his fault!" Rumble defended.

"Yeah, 'Bee can't keep making fun of him. Soundwave's lived his life like that! We should know, we're his team! You'd never understand what the big guy's been through!"

Sky Light was pretty shocked about how Frenzy defended his master like that. She'd known the mech to be a goofball and nothing much else than a show-off half the time, so it was strange hearing the cassette act so serious.

"All right, don't bite his head off," Ironhide growled.

"It's okay, Ironhide," Ratchet sighed. "They're right; we'll never know."

Charm sighed softly. All over again, she felt a little sorry for Soundwave. He'd been through too much for any mech to bear. She just watched him carefully as he sped slowly ahead of them in silence. Then there was Jazz…

"Yo, how 'bout some tunes?" he said.

"Now you're talkin'!" Techno supported. Jazz turned on a techno song for the guy. Charm could feel the green 'bot moving inside her and giggled.

"Stop, it tickles!" she cried.

"Well, sorry! _Destination Hard Trance_'s got good bass!" With that, he keep moving to the fast beat. The other cassettes joined in and started making their mistress shaking around and doing corkscrews to try and get them to stop.

"Cut it out!" she said. "It tickles! I look drunk now because of you lot!"

Soundwave laughed below them. She was right; she did look kind of drunk. Her flight pattern was messed up and it seemed like she couldn't choose whether to fly right-side up or upside down. It was certainly a sight to see. His laughter stopped when he noticed a fighter plane coming right at her.

Skywarp.

Soundwave acted almost immediately and rammed into Jazz to make him turn off the music. Jazz gave out a couple of curses in Cybertronian and asked what the hell was wrong. Soundwave didn't have to answer when Jazz finally spotted the jet.

"Yo, Jazz, where's the tunes?" Shocker asked.

"Move it, Charm!" Jazz shouted. "He's coming right at you!"

Charm stared straight ahead and rolled to the side just in time to get her belly scratched by the wing-edge of the black jet. She kept flying straight, but Skywarp turned around to try again. This time he fired his null rays at her (quite poorly), making her confused as to where to fly.

"Man, I picked a hell of a day to quit drinkin'!" Skywarp groaned, using his knowledge of human curses.

"Get away from me!" Charm shouted. She transformed and turned her back to the wind so she could get a good shot at Skywarp. The mech yelped and rolled over to dodge her attack. "What slag are you doing here?"

"Outta my way, 'Warp!" Thundercracker shouted from behind him. "I'm taking her down myself!"

Skywarp obeyed and drunkenly rolled over upside down to let Thundercracker's aim lock on to the lavender Seeker. Charm gasped and transformed to fly over to the left, but the blue jet followed her.

"Charm!" Soundwave screamed. He took a sharp turn to the next street to follow under them. He tried not to smash into any cars coming his way and tried to keep up with the jets. Fed up with driving, the mech transformed and jumped onto the nearest building. He hopped from top to top to keep the Seekers in his sights, but their speed was too fast for him. Soundwave stopped short and watched as they flew off.

"Please do not hurt her," he silently told the blue jet. "I beg of you, Thundercracker, don't do this."

"Get back here, Autobot!" Thundercracker screamed, shooting at her with his null rays. Charm dodged every attack perfectly and let her turbines go into overload with speed. But she didn't know about Thundercracker's ability. He activated it just enough to cause a sonic boom and flew up next to her. "You can't hide, girl!"

"Frag off, Thunder-butt!" she shouted. Her cockpit opened up to release a wild-looking Shocker and he jumped on Thundercracker to mess up his flight and forced him to roll several times over to the side. Shocker punched the glass cover of the canopy a multitude of times and made the glass crack.

"Cut it out, mini-mod!" Thundercracker roared.

"Leave Charm alone!" the blue and yellow mech cried out. He hit the glass once more to shatter it, triggering Thundercracker to fall down nose-first into the ground. Shocker hopped off of the blue jet and skydiving downwards. Charm flew under the cassettes and caught him in time to have Thundercracker crash land into another building.

"So this what being a cone-head Seeker feels like," he moaned. He shut off his systems to recharge for a while.

"Way to go, bro!" Star cheered.

"Worship him later," Charm advised. "Skywarp's still on the boys' tail."

It was pretty easy getting Skywarp away from the four mechs. For one, he had such a bad hangover that he was seeing double; second, the Autobots went into separate directions so Skywarp would have a hard time trying to pick a target. But Skywarp's orders from Starscream had drilled into his head and he kept his eyes on Soundwave. Or at least he tried to--you can give him credit for that. Either way, he knew he had to stay near the blue mech.

"Ya through, Soundwave!" Skywarp slurred. "Augh, Primus…"

The intel 'bot suddenly had an idea hit him. As soon as he did, he mentally passed it on to his cassettes so they could take a vote. Three were all for it, but Ravage knew that it wouldn't be a pretty sight. So Soundwave raced on to the dirt outskirts so he could play out his plan. He went straight for some time now, and as soon as Skywarp decided to fire, he slammed the brakes and stopped, turned to the side, and began to go a different direction. Skywarp tried to turn, but jet turns were always slower. It took him a while, but he finally got to the same course as Soundwave.

And then the guy took another break-turn…

"Aww, come on!" Skywarp whined. "My tank can't take it!"

Soundwave laughed at him, as well as the other cassettes. Except Ravage; he was waiting for Skywarp to blow. As soon as Skywarp turned again, Soundwave made a final turn. The black Seeker tried to follow a bit faster, but ended up screwing his pattern and was going in for a crash landing.

"FRAGGIT!" he shouted as he hit the ground. Soundwave turned back around and transformed to pin down the jet so he couldn't shift. "Get off-a me!"

"Surrender, Skywarp," Soundwave growled. "Violence computes."

"Okay, okay! Uncle!" the black jet screamed. "Just don't torture me!" After witnessing what happened with Starscream and when _he _ticked of Soundwave, he tried hard not to get from the mech's bad list to the hit list.

Soundwave smirked behind the mask and climbed off the Seeker. Skywarp transformed and had his back against the dirt. He stared up at the sky and hiccupped.

"I think I'm just gonna lay here…" he sighed. And passed out. Ravage sighed and spoke out--a very rare moment.

_Thank Primus the man didn't purge._

"He looked pretty close, though," Rumble chuckled. Soundwave didn't add his comment and transformed back into a Corvette. He raced to the air base to find the other Autobots and hoped that Charm had made it.

"Yo, dudes, what kept ya?" Jazz asked as Charm and Soundwave came up to the middle of the liftoff space.

"Well sorry if we're trying to live!" Charm snapped sarcastically. "Anyway, let's get out of here."

"Alright, load up, boys!" Captain Lennox shouted to his troops. "Half of the Middle East might be gone by the time we get there, so we need to put it in full throttle! Charm, you're gonna be the Air Boss for now."

"The what?"

"It means you're captain of the skies for the mission," Ironhide explained.

Lennox stopped giving out his instructions and looked up at Soundwave. The intel 'bot could tell what the human was thinking. Charm saw the look and then laughed a little as if it was normal.

"Don't worry, captain, he's good now!" she said. Lennox just nodded and gave out the rest of his instructions.

"Epps, you're team's gonna roll in first. We won't bring out the 'bots until the hope's gone. We'll set up a perimeter, get as many as we can out of there, then we'll start dropping bombs. As soon as you get a good moment, call in for the rain."

"Yes, sir," Epps grunted, and jumped into the cargo plane.

"Prime, 'Bee, Ratchet; you guys will be the first 'bot team to go in. Jazz, Charm, Soundwave; you'll come in next. And Sam?"

"No here!" Sam tried hiding behind Bumblebee's leg servo so he could try and sneak in. Although he didn't like much being in the last city battle in Mission City, he wanted to give it one more try. Especially since he had a little more experience with fighting Decepticons.

"Nice try, Sam," Lennox laughed. He pulled out a cell phone and called his parents.

"Please! You won't even know I'm there. Like the Invisible Man!" Sam begged.

"Chill, Sam," Jazz grunted. "Listen, I'll convince Willie ta bring ya next time."

"Thanks, Jazz," Sam sighed. Though he was sure that opportunity wouldn't happen until a couple more years. (Irony)

The four-wheeled Autobots (and Soundwave) loaded up on the giant freighter plane. Charm transformed and waited for the plane to take off so she could follow. It took a while since the thing was so large. After a while it finally lifted into the air, Charm following close to the side, near the small window. Soundwave kept his gaze on that window, out towards Charm. He didn't know why, but he couldn't help but think that she would get hurt.

xXx

Author's Note: I'll try to be faster in writing these stories. It's just that two thigns stop me (first reason is lame): One, I have to get the feel of the story first before I write. Second, school is pounding me with homework (which I either choose not to do or do it and feel incredibly stupid I didn't do it in the first place)


	13. Truth and Dare

Chapter XIII

"Yo, Kale. You wanna smoke?" Epps said, handing the soldier next to him a cigarette. Kale just put his hand up in refusal.

"No thanks, man. I don't smoke," he said. Epps cocked his head and put it in his own mouth.

"It's a victory cigarette; you don't take it until the fat lady sings."

"Answer's still no, sir."

"Suit yourself," he sighed. He took out his lighter and ignited the cigarette. Kale turned his body to the other side so he wouldn't suffer from second-hand smoke.

Soundwave just stared at them with his curious expression hidden. He wouldn't get why humans would try and create fumes from a small stick. What was it supposed to do anyway? Nothing good, he recalled. He been through Internet sites several times and ended up on some that had no use to him and his Decepticon cause. Browsing through one, he saw a couple of bad things that the small white stick had done and still did to humans. Then why were they still using it? His answer came up when he heard a college student talking about it with his friend one time; why they were still making them when they're so bad for you. Money. It was all for the money, and it became humans' greatest weakness.

"You alright up there, boss?" Frenzy said, looking up at his master. Soundwave slightly nodded and looked out the window again at Charm. He couldn't tell what she was thinking since she was in flight mode, but he could feel her getting tense. She was probably scared to fly all the way to another country and fight Decepticons, or maybe she was feeling what Soundwave was; fear of her getting hurt.

"Well, ya don't look fine," Rumble continued for his brother. "You look like yer about ta cry or somethin'."

Soundwave looked back down at his cassettes and growled, visor glowing brighter to add to the intimidation act. It worked enough for Frenzy to shake and Rumble slightly put his hands up and back off a few steps. The giant blue mech smiled to himself and looked back out at Charm flying smoothly across the sky.

_How long was it, Charm? How many years have I been torn away from you? Now I wish I would have killed Megatron myself. Instead there is only Starscream left. Tell me when you see him. I will offline him for what he has done to you._

-

Astrotrain just sat there, looking at all the humans trying run from the Insecticons. The bugs started eating up some poorly fertilized farms, taking in whatever they had to offer. The farmers weren't all that happy; some ran in fear, others tried to bring out some guns or torches to try and drive them away. But nothing could stop the Insecticons from eating everything they saw. A few months on a cold planet like Pluto could really get to you and make you starving for anything edible.

One of the farmers shouted curses at Shrapnel in his native language, but the cockroach ignored it and kept munching on the crops. The farmer even tried throwing rocks at him, but that only irritated the bug. What really crossed the line was when the man brought an old scythe and started scratching at his leg. Shrapnel finally turned, picked up the man with his alt mode's teeth, and threw him at least a football field away.

"Stupid humans, humans," the bug groaned, and went back to eating. More farmers had learned quickly and tried to avoid the Insecticons.

-

Starscream stayed put on the base that was soon to contain a satellite rotation to the Earth's moon (he could already feel the gravity working its way in). He had known Soundwave for years and never expected him to change to the Autobots so suddenly; especially the reason being a femme he had forgotten about.

Maybe there was a glitch in the systems when Soundwave went through the cylinder. There was supposed to be no way to remember anyone from the Autobot side. Starscream himself started wondering if he would start changing. He hoped to Primus he wouldn't. Soundwave switching sides was embarrassing enough as it was.

"Little pain in the aft. Always was," Starscream grumbled.

"And a stiff!" Skywarp said, hearing him. "All he does is work, work, and oh! More work!"

"That's because he's in a higher rank," Thundercracker grunted, "and he has no time to be fooling around like you do."

"The mech needs ta get a life." Skywarp crossed his arms.

"Believe me, he's chosen a new one now."

"Femmes…Who knew that'd be the boy's weakness!"

"Both of you just shut up!" Starscream yelled, throwing something large at Skywarp's head. The purple mech ducked and it had missed him and smashed into the wall.

"Whoa, Screamy," Skywarp said. "You're a little on edge, aren't you?"

"And you're a little unfathomable for using humans' figures of speech!" he growled. "I'm going to see Astrotrain and the last thing I need is you messing it up!"

"Don't worry, Starscream," Thundercracker muttered. "I'll keep him here."

Starscream gave a slight nod, transformed, and flew out of the lunar base to Earth. Skywarp just stood there, glaring at his blue wing mate. Thundercracker noticed and shrugged.

"What?" he asked.

"Why do have to ruin my fun?" Skywarp growled.

"Just doing my job."

Skywarp crossed his arms and leaned against the controls. "Word of advice, Thunder, quit being such an aft! You'd have a lot more fun if you were me."

"If I were you then I'd be stupid and unable to fire correctly."

The purple mech uncrossed his arms and puffed out his chest, optics glowing. "You wanna go here and now, Thunder-aft crack!"

The Seeker growled and stood ready to brace whatever attack would come near him.

"Take your best shoot, I dare you!"

"Gladly! Just hope you're better at dodging than Shockwave is!"

"Wait…Shockwave? Who's he?"

Skywarp just stood there with the stupidest look on his face and slapped his hand to his forehead. "The guy from Tarn!"

_Access granted._

Skywarp turned around to the control screen to see it open up to a home page.

"Uh…" he mumbled. "That wasn't me…"

"Actually, it was," Thundercracker said, walking up to the controls. "You just said the password, I think."

"What did I say?"

The blue mech stared at the screen for a while. The only way to figure it out was to go back, so he logged off the screen. Skywarp slapped him on the back of the helm.

"You stupid fragger!" he shouted. "Who knows what kind of stuff Starscream has in there! Maybe he has something personal…" A giddy chuckle escaped the prankster's vocals. Thundercracker just glared.

"The last sentence you said to me. Which word seemed like a password?"

"Um, okay…?" Skywarp looked at the screen. "Uh…Tarn?"

_Access granted._

"This shit is the bomb!"

Thundercracker rolled his optics and sat before the screen. "Maybe if we look through a few records we can see why Soundwave switched sides."

"Let's see," the purple Seeker said, leaning on the chair and tapping his chin. "The nerd fell head over servos for an Autobot chick and decided to leave. There! Now can we see some of Starscream's stuff?"

"Not yet. I don't think that's the whole story."

"Frag you."

The grunt searched for any record on Soundwave and pulled up the same stuff that he heard when he first met him. Top grades, four cassette companions, and his ZR-1 alt mode.

"Okay, so the guy's clean. Can we _please _get some dirt on Screamer!"

"Can you wait five clicks before I blow a gasket here?!"

"Sorry, jeez!"

Thundercracker groaned and went back to the screen. He noticed something on Soundwave's file that said ENROLLED AUTOBOT. Just by seeing the word "Autobot" the grunt was interested. He opened it to see if there was any more information on it and the screen opened up something about a machine.

"The heck…?" Skywarp said, finally taking his own curiosity into Soundwave's past.

The machine could alter your entire being, almost inside _and_ out if necessary. It sent electro-magnetic pulses into your head to make your systems flicker on and off for brief moments of time. In those moments the gadget would alter your mental processor and made you think you were a Decepticon. All memories of being in the safe haven of Iacon were lost and you couldn't remember what it was like being a child in the streets or even what kindness felt like. All you knew were the statistical material the Autobots had taught you and how to move your body. Megatron used the machine to take the best, but sometimes took some of the worst as not to seem suspicious.

"So, Soundwave went through this?" Skywarp said, still staring at the monitor.

"Apparently so," his blue wing mate answered. He looked around for any more information that could be useful and saw another file name that said LIST OF ENROLLED. So Thundercracker opened that up as well and saw how many names were there. About half the Decepticon army was made of Autobots forgotten.

Blackout, Bombshell, Mixmaster, Long Haul, Wildrider, Drag Strip, and Skyfire was the only one who had escaped back into the world he once lived. There were many other names; Octane, Blitzwing, Swindle, and Vortex were included.

"Primus have mercy…" Thundercracker breathed. "How many Autobot-Decepticons are there?!"

Skywarp pointed to the screen, eyes widened. "Th-Thundercracker?" He tapped on his partner's shoulder several times.

"What do you want now?"

The purple mech kept his arm in place, pointed at the monitor. The grunt had no choice but to groan and look. It took him all of two seconds to see what he was pointing at. Two names.

Skywarp.

Thundercracker.

ENROLLED AUTOBOTS.

"But I've been with the Decepticons all my life!" Skywarp shouted. "There's no fragging way that I'm some do-good Autobot!"

Thundercracker looks down at the floor with mouth slightly open and optics wide enough to make it hurt. When he spoke it was just above a whisper.

"It can also alter your memories…" he muttered. "We only _think _we're Decepticons because that's what we _see_. Maybe--" He turned to Skywarp. "Maybe we're all like Soundwave and Skyfire."

"Oh, don't start this!"

"Think seriously, Skywarp! We thought that Skyfire had gone back because he believed he didn't want to live in a world of hate. What if that's all just propaganda? What if he went back because he figured out what he really was before? When do you think _our _memories will start flooding back?"

Skywarp had nothing to say and kept looking at his blue friend. For once he could admit he was right.

"You might've still been the prankster in the Autobot Academy as I was the grumpy grunt that didn't want anything to do with anyone. We're being lied to more or less, though. We were Autobots once."

"Wh…What do we do…?"

Thundercracker smiled and said three simple little words that Skywarp wasn't sure he wanted to hear.

"We go back."

xXx

Author's Note: About time, boys.


	14. Old Rival

Like I've said in some other stories, I have been grounded the past nine weeks...I was only allowed on the computer for the weekends. Reason: bad grade in math. So I hope you enjoy this chapter because I enjoyed making it! ^_^

* * *

Chapter XIV

They flew over the Middle East, right towards Arabia. Everyone on board had already seen the four Decepticons destroying half the cities but had to drop outside of Mecca so the 'bots couldn't crash into anything when they dove down.

"Alright, 21 degrees 25 minutes 9 seconds North, 39 degrees 57 minutes and 38 seconds East. That's where we're landing Optimus and the others," Lennox ordered the pilot over the intercom. "You're going to drop the rest of us 21 degrees 26 minutes 46 seconds North, 39 degrees 59 minutes 26 seconds East." He looked to Optimus. "You ready?"

"As I'll ever be," the truck replied. Lennox asked the rest of the Autobots if they were ready, and all confirmed for dropping. The captain ordered the pilot to let go of the hatch and the Autobots dived out, Charm flying around them in the air.

"Soundwave, I gotta ask you somethin'," Rumble said.

"What now?"

"If Charm gets hurt, will you stop fighting or keep going?"

"Of course I'll stop!"

"What then?"

"Are you trying to make me say it?"

/_He put us all on open link, Soundwave_/ Bumblebee chuckled. /_Yeah, I think he wants you to say it_./

Soundwave growled at his cassette. Decepticon or Autobot, his little tykes have been getting him into trouble or trying to embarrass him. "Alright, fine…"

/_We're listenin'_/ Jazz commented.

/_No pressure!_/ Ironhide chuckled.

/_Guys, shut up and let him speak_/ Charm asked.

"Thank you." Soundwave gathered up his courage. "I'd stop, hold her in my arms, and stay there to make sure she's safe."

A chorus of "aww" came into play as Soundwave turned bright red in the face. "And I'd have the cassettes guard as well. All eight, in fact; hers and mine."

/_I love you, Soundwave!_/

"Love you too, Charm."

*

Eject sat on top of Blaster's shoulder, listening into the radio waves of a football game. He even repeated every word they said and when his team got a touchdown he would almost shout right into his boss's audio. "TOUCHDOWN!"

"Could you quiet down!" Rewind complained. "It's bad enough I have to listen to that every Monday night, but now you're doing it on Sundays? Give us a break already!"

Eject ignored him and continued narrating the game. Blaster shot him a glare until he finally looked at him. The small blue cassette looked back expected the larger orange mech to flick him off his shoulder.

"It's been four months, Eject," Blaster growled. "Tone it down a bit or I'll restrict you of your games for a week."

"Make it a month!" Rewind cheered. Blaster ignored him.

"Enough screaming in my audio, okay?"

"Yes, sir…" Eject jumped off his shoulder and ran off to shout for his team somewhere else. Blaster sat down, back against a tree, and closed his optics just in time to receive a signal of Decepticon activity a few miles from his position. He called for Eject to come back and gathered up his cassettes into his chest. He transformed into a Blazer and rolled off to where the humans were screaming and robots were firing. As he got closer, he could see a few other Autobot friends and one Decepticon standing with them. Why didn't it attack them? He wondered.

*

Lennox started losing men fast to the Insecticons and only one was dead from Astrotrain's hand. Bombshell squashed them, Kickback was toying with them like a sparkling would, and Shrapnel was eating some of them.

"I think the hope's lost, captain," Epps said as he crouched behind a rock with Lennox.

"No! We can hold out a bit longer!"

As soon as the words left his mouth, a tank cam into a view and was rolling across the desert ground right next to their position. They stared at it for a few seconds.

"All right. Hope's lost," Lennox admitted. He grabbed his walkie-talkie. "Optimus! We're getting slammed! You're up!"

"Yes, sir." Optimus turned to his team. All grinned back to show they were ready. "Let's kick some afts."

Jazz cheered and ran out towards the battle, gun ready in hand. Charm transformed to give the boys air support, the rest shouted their battle cries, except for the quiet Soundwave, and attacked the Insecticons. The bugs hissed at their enemies and were quick to react. Immediately they attacked their own kill, but each time they attacked one there was another to pull them off and shoot them at the spark chamber.

Charm was firing on the bugs from above, but their speed against her and the mechs on the ground were impressive at dodging all sorts of bullets. Of course they were hit several times, but their techno-organic hide kept them safe from any fatal damage.

Astrotrain took to the air and played his part by firing on the Seeker. Charm ceased her firing to try and get away from him. She had known triple-changers to be a little psychotic yet excellent at firing, and they took orders whenever they felt like it. What helped her most was the weight they had. Because of their double alternate forms they were heavier than the average Transformer. She corkscrewed into the air and took sharp turns to get Astrotrain off-balance. At the turns she could see him lower for a few seconds, and lifting into the air made him take forever to try and lift. When she was high enough, she fired at the triple-changer and he took a few shots to the shoulder. He growled, aimed his guns, and fired at her. She took the blast hard and lost her altitude. _I forgot_, she thought. _Even their power is stronger._

Soundwave looked up to see her falling down. He shouted in fury at Astrotrain and ran to catch her. "CHARM!" As he got closer she fell down faster. He worried that he wasn't going to be able to catch her fast enough. Like Lennox had said, hope was lost.

At least for a minute it was. Blaster caught sight of her, transformed, and jumped into the air to catch her. In midair he tackled her and rolled across the ground, holding her close. A few seconds went by until she opened her optics again. She looked at Blaster, but the sun shone too bright for her to clearly see him.

"Am I dead?" she asked. "Are you Primus?"

Blaster chuckled. "No, you're alive. I'm Blaster."

Charm smiled back at him. "I'm Charm."

Soundwave stopped a few good kilometers away from the newcomer and Charm. He could see the way the mech was holding her close in safety and a fire of rage and jealously was ignited. His cassettes could feel it too.

"Hey, boss," Frenzy growled, "that glitch has cassettes too. Two mechs and animals. Want us to take him out?"

"Unnecessary, Frenzy," Soundwave snarled. "That one will wish he had never touched her."

"Can we still kill his kids?" Rumble said, a little too excitedly.

"I would like for me to switch to the Autobots, if you don't mind, Rumble," Soundwave grumbled. "We will get our revenge one day. Just not today." He walked off, leaving Charm and Blaster. He hated that he left. What he wanted to do was run to the mech and blast his head clean off his shoulders.

Blaster helped the Seeker up to her feet. She couldn't stand very well; her leg had been shot. He offered her to lay down to rest, but she refused.

"Aren't you stubborn?" he laughed. "Same as you were at the Academy."

"Excuse me?"

"You don't remember me?" His smile faded away. "Blaster. You know, the goofy, hyper Blaster?"

She shook her head.

"Aww, scrap… I thought you might've remembered me." His chest opened without him knowing and Rewind crawled out and sat on his boss's shoulder.

"How about me!" he said, sort of perky. Charm's own chest opened and Techno rushed out and tackled the cassette down.

"Dude, I haven't seen you since forever!" the blue mech cheered. Rewind smiled and gave a mech-hug to his old friend. "Primus, where in Inferno have you been!"

"With Blaster of course!"

Shocker jumped out at the same time Eject did and they fist-pounded each other. Charm and Blaster figured they might as well send the rest of their team out. Star and Sky Light petted Ramhorn and Steeljaw, both animals purring at their touch.

"Now I remember you!" Charm smiled at Blaster. "Statistics class!"

"And racing. I think you still hold the school's record for fastest jet."

"Good, I don't want noobs taking my title; I worked stellar cycles on it!"

"Noobs?" he still wasn't familiar with the Earth slang.

"Freshmechs."

"Oh…"

/_Are you two finished yet?!_/Ironhide shouted from their links. /_Yes, I get it, Blaster's here. Welcome back, nerd. Now get yer afts in gear!/_

"Nice to see you again too, 'Hide," Blaster chuckled. "Just give me a target and I'll do the rest."

/_How about tha grasshopper chasing me around the fricking neighborhood! There's a good one!_/

"You got it." He closed the link. "Like the old days, Charm!"

Charm gave a full smile, packed up her cassettes, and took to the air. _He seems nice_.

xXx

Author's Note: Lil' bit of competition there, Soundwave? *giggle*


	15. Thought

Note: Because this is based off the 2007 movieverse, but Soundwave has the real Frenzy, Barricade's Mini-con had to change its name in this story.

* * *

Chapter XV

Blaster kicked Soundwave in the leg and held him down at gunpoint. Charm ran by and held him back. Soundwave continued glaring at the Autobot. How he wanted to kill him…

"Blaster, I told you! He's on our side!" Charm cried. "I'm serious!"

"Once a Decepticon they stay that way!" Blaster growled. "There is no way that this punk is an Autobot now!"

"He is," Ratchet said calmly. "Optimus and the rest of us discussed this. Soundwave's love for Charm overcame his programming and he decided to change factions."

"I don't believe you!"

Frenzy popped out, gun ready, with his brother, who was also ready with his piledrivers to tear down the whole warehouse at command from his leader just to get back at Blaster.

"Either you back the hell off or we'll go crazy on yer aft!" Frenzy roared. Steeljaw and Eject came out to meet them and were ready to attack.

"Make us, Decepti-creep!" Eject growled. Steeljaw snarled and pawed at the ground to get ready to charge. Optimus came into the room and spoke loud enough to make everyone stop and turn to acknowledge him.

"Stop this nonsense!" he shouted. "Blaster, I know you don't agree, but Soundwave is of our team now, even our army, and on our side of the war. Either you accept it or you go find shelter somewhere else. I don't need nor want fights in my own ranks."

Blaster glared at him for a slight moment, then looked at Soundwave. The blue mech didn't show his face behind the visor, so he couldn't tell if his face was eased or glaring right back. The orange mech then looked at Charm. She was too innocent-looking yet tough as a thousand steel hammers, even by Transformer standards. Her optics and her frown told Blaster to back off or get shot in the knee joint.

"Yes, sir…" Blaster sighed. He put his gun away and took his cassettes back inside. Optimus gave directions to Bumblebee to lead the new recruit to his room and he did so. Frenzy and Rumble glared at him until he was out of sight. Rumble switched his hands back over and groaned in irritancy.

"It's always the stupid ones!" his brother growled. "I wish that glitch would back off of Soundwave!"

Sky Light walked up to him and put her hands on his shoulders. "Calm down, Frenz," she said. "Remember, you want to stay on our side, not stay in our jail."

"He just pisses me off so much! I wanna match with that Rewind freak he's got! I saw the way that glitch was looking at you! He wants ta frag ya!"

"He does not! You just think that because you're jealous."

Frenzy brought his eyes closer and growled. "I am not jealous. I've lived in the D-con ranks long enough to know that look. He wants you to have his kids."

Sky Light couldn't help it, but she slapped him across the face. Frenzy looked at her, sort of shocked. But her expression didn't change; she looked angry as a bull.

"Leave Rewind alone," she said.

"Oh, so now you love him back!"

"I don't! And I never will!"

"You love him, you little glitch!"

The room went silent. Sky Light tilted her head a bit downwards and too the side, visor glowing brightly. Frenzy took his sweet time to find out what he just said.

"Oh damn…Damn, I didn't mean it!"

"Did you just call me a glitch?" she growled.

"I said I didn't mean it!"

As soon as Sam walked up to the front door of the warehouse, Sky Light tackled Frenzy down and was about to rip his arm off. The boy scooted over to Charm and asked her what was going on.

"We have a new guy," she answered. "He's like Soundwave, except a face."

"Cassettes and all?"

"And originally Autobot. Wanna meet him? Bumblebee'll show you to him."

When Sam walked into Blaster's room he saw the mech sitting on the side of the berth, arms hanging across his legs, back bent, and staring at the floor in a sad silence. His cassettes were around him, all complaining about Soundwave's decision. The boy walked up slowly into Blaster's view and managed a smile.

"Hi," he said, putting up his hand in a slight wave. Blaster gave a half smile. The expression went as quick as it came and he looked away from him. Sam moved to try to get into view again. "Somethin' wrong?"

"Soundwave," the bot grumbled.

"Ah, I get what you mean… I bet if more Autobots came they'd feel they'd want to kick Soundwave to the curb too. But he's really a nice guy when you get to meet him! It's just the twins you got worry ab--"

"Not that," Blaster interrupted. Sam stared at him until he spoke again after a while. "It's Charm, actually."

"What about her? Was she a Decepticon too?"

"Nope…" He stayed quiet a bit longer, then sat up. "She's in love with that fragger…"

"You love her!" Sam said, more loudly than he thought. Blaster glared at him, but the boy didn't care. "Dude, why don't you tell her!"

"I've always seen her with Soundwave, so I thought they were going out. I was waiting until they broke up or something so I could ask her."

"And we've got a little somethin' for her girls!" Eject shouted, a smile on his face. "Star's so pretty…" He stared at the wall in front of him as if she were there.

"The only thing that stopped _us _were their brothers," Rewind commented. "Techno seems tough and Shocker looks like a psycho. And you know how psychos fight!"

Sam nodded, remembering how he was jumped by Barricade's Mini-con, Six-Speed. Were all human-sized Cybertronians insane?

"Well, as far as I know, they weren't going out until a few days ago," Sam said.

"WHAT?!" Blaster growled loudly and both his two-legged cassettes turned purple with the energon rushing to their faces. Sam backed off towards the door in case he had to make an escape. "A few days ago?!"

"Yeah…at least that's what I was told from 'Bee. And he's my best friend! He'd never lie to me…far as I know he wouldn't…"

"I'll kill that glitch! Charm's mine!"

"I'm guessing Transformers have testosterone too?"

Blaster growled at Sam and his optics brightened. Sam took it as a death threat and ran off, leaving the mech to his anger.

"We gotta do something about Soundwave!" Rewind said. "I don't like that a Decepticon is lurking around here. What if the Decepticons knew his history with Charm and that's how they have Soundwave spying on us! His story with Charm's believable!"

"That's good thinking, Rewind," Blaster credited his cassette. "Decepticons can be cunning, but we have to out-smart them somehow… We need to get some real evidence that Soundwave is still in touch with them."

"You too, big guy?" said the voice of Techno. Blaster and his cassettes turned to look at him and Shocker standing at the doorway. "We don't like Soundwave bein' here either."

"Especially not with his tykes kissing our sisters!" Shocker hissed. Eject stepped back a bit to try and hold his anger and Rewind turned purple in the face. Just as Blaster was in love with Charm, Rewind liked Sky Light and Eject was head-over-heels for Star. Planning for revenge started long before Blaster even saw them at Mecca.

*

Barricade.

That's all he figured he had left was his name. His fighting spirit had died back in the battle at Mission City when he was rolling down the highway. Something told him, right when Bonecrusher had ripped through the bus, causing lots of people to die, that he did not need to fight; that he did not belong with Decepticons; that he was better than them. He hated that voice. He kept telling himself he was loyal to Megatron, but then he questioned his faith. The voice was becoming stronger and telling him he didn't have to and shouldn't be in the Decepticon army. Or even their empire for that matter.

But here he was. He was taking care of a human who was in a coma. He saw the little girl after the bus ripped into two and that same voice inside his processor told him to rescue her. He did it, but he didn't know what else to do. He couldn't go to a hospital, he wouldn't be able to find the right medication for her; hell, he considered himself lucky he was still able to feed her with that little Mini-con of his. Six-Speed didn't like it at all that he had to play a part in caring for the girl. Barricade would say he didn't care what the slag the runt thought and would continue supervising.

Questions ran through his head each time he looked back at the innocent little girl on the ground. Humans were able to think, speak, experience, and everything else Cybertronians could do, except they were given a much shorter life. Were they really that different from each other or the same? He would sometimes think that the voice in his head might've been his own conscience kicking in and gathering a new form of personality. The police car wasn't one to think too deeply about these things, but since he had no more friends and no orders had come from Megatron in weeks he might as well do nothing but think. And that led him to think of the _past _of the human race. When were they able to come up with the same tools used today? Easy; they had all the time they could possibly want, aside from farming, and they could do nothing but think. Thought made things easier for a large amount of people. Then if the voice was his thought, maybe thinking that breaking from the Decepticons was a better thing for him, for humans, for Autobots, for life.

He smiled at himself from time to time at that reflection and Six-Speed would try to make him snap out of it. He had never seen his partner smile (except when he was going to kill something) and it was strange seeing it on his face when nothing at all was happening.

"Six, do you think there's a reason for everything?" he asked one day.

"Actually, no," he replied, not being one to believe in spiritual things. "I believe in killing, slaughter, torture, maiming--"

"That's not what I asked you," the cop interrupted. "I asked you if you ever thought for even a moment in your life that we're here for a purpose. Something else at work, those kind of things."

"Again, no," the 'con said without hesitating.

"You didn't even have a chance?"

"Nope! And I'd like to stay that way too."

"Alright, then consider this an order. Think about it for a second. Think why did everything happen when it did?"

Six-Speed followed his command and stared at the ground to think. For a while nothing came into mind, but his optics caught sight of the girl. His true thoughts kicked in just as it had with Barricade. She was smaller, weaker, innocent, ugly but yet beautiful. Why did her god place her on this planet if she was useless? Maybe she would grow up stronger and more willful and become a successful woman. Or she would fail and be left on the side of the road. There were many roads to take and all the humans had a choice. And what of the Cybertronians? Did they have a choice? Of course.

"Don't tell me you're thinking of switching to the Autobots!" Six-Speed screamed.

"I thought about it, yes," Barricade replied calmly. "But they wouldn't take me in. I can feel the Decepticon side wiping away day after day, but something of it still lies in my spark. It's a small amount of it, but it's a heavy burden. I wonder what it would feel like if it was lifted?"

"Okay, you sound like you're on crack," Six-Speed commented stupidly. "Decepticons are Decepticons, and that's that."

"What are Decepticons, really? A group opposing another. We're not a race separate from the Autobots. Just like the humans and the wars they have; Nazis, America, the Kurds, Britain; they're still humans, aren't they?"

"I guess so…"

"So we're still Cybertronian. Autobots and Decepticons are just bots thinking they're better than the other. Nazis thought their way was better than the other and what did they do? Slaughter their own kind. That's what we did."

"Oh…Wait a second, did you just say 'did'? As in past tense?"

"Yep. I have too much blood on my hands. I'm done with killing."

"I have to tag along, don't I?"

"You don't have to if you don't want to."

Six-Speed looked back at the girl. More than ever now he wanted to help her. He would've left Barricade to deal with her, but he needed help if he wanted her to survive.

"I'm staying."

xXx

Author's Note: I'm depreived here... I've got several people who put this on story alert and yet only one is obviously still interested... :( Reviews inspire writers.


	16. Proof

Guess what! I'm in London! :D I've never been out of the country before, but man, London is a dangerous place to be in. o_o

Chapter XVI

"We've been flying around the same area for hours now, can we please land?" Skywarp begged. Both the Seekers had been going around Tranquility for Primus knows how long and the black Seeker was tired of it. The only thing he was glad of now was that no humans decided to fire on them when they had several opportunities. Thundercracker thought it was some military command not to fire, and Skywarp just decided that they were lucky today.

"We can't land yet," the blue jet answered. "We land and everyone will panic."

"Then why the slag are we just flying around here?"

"Flying helps me think."

"And you brought me out here _why_?"

"I learned how to think with you complaining the entire time."

"Oh, you're such a comedian…" Skywarp groaned. His tank started grumbling and the other thought that it must've been a human getting ready to fire from a large weapon.

"That was my tank, dumbaft," Skywarp remarked. "We've been flying for hours; I'm tired and I'm hungry! I wanna go home!"

"What home? Last I remember we're supposed to be Autobots."

"Autobots, Decepticons; I really don't give a frag right now, as long as we just fragging _land_!"

Thundercracker gave in and landed on the ground several miles away from the city limits along with his purple friend. Skywarp started digging into the ground in hopes of finding any form of grade of energon while the grunt just sat against a large tree to think some more. It had been at least a week since they found out they were once Autobots and decided to abandon Starscream. They thought that because they were really on the other side of the war, they might as well try to fit in. Yet there were a few complications.

One was that their Decepticon habits and nature were still embedded into their processors. They knew Optimus had a couple of soldiers that were quite "unstable," but a Decepticon nature was more violent than that of an Autobot's. The second was if Optimus Prime would accept them or not. He let Soundwave in because of Charm's beliefs that he was still good inside. But neither Thundercracker nor Skywarp had anybody on the other side that loyal enough to convince Optimus to let them switch factions.

"You think we can contact Soundwave?" Thundercracker spoke up after a while. When he received no answer, he looked to the side to see Skywarp nearly passed out on the grass. (He must have found high grade in the area.) The blue jet walked over and kicked him lightly on the side. "Skywarp."

"Engh?"

"Do you think we could talk to Soundwave and see if he can convince Optimus to let us in?"

"Dunno… Ah hardly (hiccup) know tha guy…"

"You're so worthless." Thundercracker sat on the ground and tried to reach Soundwave. He had half of a mind that Soundwave would have deleted his contact from his com-link already after half a month of being away from the Decepticons. But they thought washed away when he heard a hopeful beep on the other end.

/_What do you want?_/ Soundwave growled. He still had not known about the Seekers' switching plan.

"Soundwave, we know why you changed sides."

/_Doesn't everyone? Because of Charm. Now leave this link._/

"Not that reason, smart guy, the other reason hidden in your head."

/_Explain._/

"Skywarp and I hacked into the base computer back in the moon's orbit and we found something that could prove interesting. You and the other Autobots need to hear this."

/_I am not quite sure, Thundercracker. Optimus is strict on Autobot-Decepticon communica-._/

"Yeah, well guess what? This isn't a trick, I swear. If it was, don't you think you'd be hearing our ego-manic, Starscream, on the other end? You know how much he loves hearing his own voice."

/_True… I will need to speak to Optimus about this. Where do you need to meet?_/

"Would he trust me enough to walk into your hideout?"

/_Negative._/

"Okay, then anywhere with a computer. You know a good place?"

/_In fact I do… The Witwicky household_./

Thundercracker groaned. "You mean you still have to put up with that stupid kid?

/_It gets worse the longer you stay, but that's off topic. Either you may met us at their house, or we never speak again._/

"Alright fine, tough guy, we'll meet over there in holoforms. Make sure the other Autobots come."

/_Are you taking Skywarp with you?_/

"I have to."

/_Damn…_/

Samuel Witwicky wasn't too happy about it either, but his thought was more concentrated on Decepticons being in the same household as him. Bumblebee always told him never to trust them, therefore came the boy to not even listening to anything Deceptions said. That included Soundwave. He still wasn't too sure about the story of him and Charm. He even took into consideration that Charm was a Decepticon herself and they were playing a part in some big plan of Starscream's or of Megatron's (before he died). Even so, Sam always wanted to think at one or the two were still on the other side of the war.

"Son, can I talk to you for a second?" Ronald Witwicky said, interrupting his thought process. Sam walked over to him and they both turned away from his mother, Judy. "Listen, Prime called and told me about these two coming by. Are you sure this is a good idea? Last time we robots hanging around they-"

"They destroyed the yard, I know. I talked to Prime to and he said he'll have Jazz and Ironhide with him for bodyguards. Maybe the Decepticons will act up, maybe they won't, you expect me to know this?"

"No, I'm just saying that…" He lowered his voice to a whisper. "The last thing we need is another fight going on in or out of this house. And with you graduating, your mom would be…" He motioned a finger circling around his ear.

"Yeah, I get it. I'll try to keep 'em calm." He walked off, took out his cell phone, and called Michaela.

"_Sam, this is the third canceled date this month. When are you free, really?_" the girl complained.

"This is important, Michaela, Soundwave said this might be-"

"_You_ _know_ _what?_ _I'm_ _tired_ _of_ _hearing_ _about_ _Soundwave_ _all_ _the_ _time_. _Ever_ _since_ _he_ _came_ _it's_ _been_ _non_-_stop_."

"Listen, listen- No, don't yell, please!- Listen… he said that the Decepticon Seekers called to probably try and switch sides. He even said that they had proof of why. Who knows? This might actually change war a bit; we got three Decepticons switched in less than half a year. That's kinda headline-front page-newspaper stuff. "

He waited to see if Michaela had a response, but she never answered.

"I'll make it up to you, whatever you want. Just name it."

"_Alright… Next Saturday, Italian restaurant, six o' clock_."

"But I have something-" He paused for a bit, wondering if he should actually say it or not. "Never mind, I'll pick you then, 'kay? I promise?"

"_Cross your heart?_"

"And hope to get shot."

He heard her chuckle over the line. "_I love you, Sam_."

"I love you too, babe. Six o' clock next week." He hung up. _'Bee, we'll have to get your paint job done another day_… he thought.

Soon as he put his phone back in his pocket, he heard the sound of car engines rolling up to the front yard. As he ran outside, he saw the headlights flicker on each four cars to project a human form that were equivalent to their robotic modes.

The one that resembled Optimus was similar to a skinny trucker; tan skin, a goatee, mustache, brown hair, red shirt with blue flames, and a pair of sky blue jeans. Jazz was enough said; black dreads down to his shoulders, blue sunglasses, skin as dark as the night itself, a white skirt, black leather pants, and a silver coat. Ironhide; black spiked hair, pale skin (but not pale enough for snow), a black tank top (to show off his muscles), camouflage shorts, and black army boots to add. Soundwave's was more mysterious, just like his true form; a blue visor, blue shirt, white pants, and a white scarf that covered his mouth. (Not the biggest fashion statement of the century.)

"Greetings, Sam," Optimus said.

"We don't say 'greetings,' Prime. We say 'hey.'"

"Hey?"

"Or 'sup!" Jazz commented. "Like dis. 'Sup, Sam?"

"'Sup, Jazz?"

Optimus just stared at the dark man and Ironhide rubbed his fingers across his forehead. Soundwave stood there silently.

"So, where's the Seekers?" Sam said. Soon as the words left his mouth, jets were heard faintly from the junk yard a good thirty blocks away. They waited on the car port for a while until they saw two figures come by from the shadows.

Thundercracker's holoform suited him rather well; black hair that covered half of his face; a tight blue shirt, dark blue jeans, and blue shoes with yellow lining. Skywarp's was more immature than his wingmate's; black hair with purple stripes nearly everywhere, a purple and black shirt, black pants, and purple shoes. He held his arms behind his head while walking. As they came up to the Autobots and human, Skywarp, Jazz, and Ironhide were the only ones that were glaring at each other. Soundwave walked up to Thundercracker and shook his hand to show truce between the sides.

"Do you have your proof?" Soundwave asked. His voice was more human and didn't have the monotone.

Thundercracker smirked and held up a green and blue disc. "Right here, nerd," he said. "This might be all the proof we need."

Soundwave took the disc and studied it for a bit.

"Will it fit on the human's monitor?"

"Computer," Soundwave corrected, still looking at the disc. "And I hope it does. If not, we'll go to the hideout."

Jazz walked over next to Sam and whispered, "You think they planted a virus in dat sucker?"

"Maybe… I've had my laptop since eighth grade; they better not crash or hack it."

Jazz chuckled. "Ah already hacked it. Make sure yo mom don't see them pictures."

Sam was about to lift a fist when Optimus ordered everyone to the backyard. They had to walk through the inside and Judy looked at the men and asked her husband "Who are these guys?" Ron just turned her back to the television and ignored her question.

The boy led them to the back yard and opened his laptop, hearing Skywarp make a remark about how primitive human technology was. Sam decided to ignore it and placed in the disc. Automatically the screen started to go black, and Sam was about to throw a fit at Thundercracker until the screen started up again and appeared with a bar and Cybertronian symbols before it.

Thundercracker asked for the laptop and Sam gladly handed it to him. The blue Seeker tried hard to figure out the keyboard to see which ones where the right keys for a Cybertronian symbol and typed the password in. The screen flickered and several files appeared. He sat on the ground next to the human as the others behind him leaned in curiously to see what he was about to do. He clicked on a file and then a name and a picture of Soundwave appeared with a column of information next to it.

"We found out the password to the base's monitor a couple of weeks ago and surfed around a bit. At the bottom of the file, we saw this." He pointed to the screen and Jazz read aloud.

"Enrolled Autobot…" His eyebrow raised and he looked at Thundercracker. "What the hell does that mean?"

"Take a look." Thundercracker clicked on the word and a list of names appeared.

After reading through the list, Ironhide commented, "This is a list of Decepticon names. What are you trying to prove?"

"Just watch!" He scrolled to another file and clicked on it. Blueprints for a machine popped up and information all around it came up. Optimus studied it for a bit and gave the order to click on a bar that was labeled "functions." He read it and his eyes widened until they looked like complete O's. Ironhide and Jazz grabbed the computer to read it next and their mouths dropped.

"What kinda sick joke is this?" Jazz screeched.

"Who came up with this?" Ironhide demanded.

"Huh? What is it? Someone tell me!" Sam said impatiently.

Skywarp leaned over and explained. "Megatron created a machine a couple of years after the war started. Basically it's designed to turn an Autobot into a Decepticon."

"How-Wait, can they do that?" The boy looked at Optimus. He had his arms crossed and was looking at the space in front of him in a thoughtful manner.

"We kept losing mechs right before their graduation, and I thought it was just because they decided to slack off," Optimus mumbled aloud.

"Starscream was ordered to hack into the files of the Autobots by using a spy," Thundercracker explained. "He was to change the grades and frame them of crimes they didn't commit so they would be thrown into Tarn. After they were sent in, they used the cylinder they call The Rebirth. It first erases the memories by sending electromagnetic pulses into the CPU, then it hooks up to processor by electric waves and downloads scenes made from Starscream to make you think that was your actual life. From there the fake memories take over the neurons to create a more violent nature inside you and stays there like it's your soul. Just to add to it, it burns a Decepticon symbol wherever it chooses so you won't go back to th Autobots. Once it's done it's work, you think you've been with the Decepticons for years and that was just some kind of initiation."

"That's fucking unreal!" Sam spat. "I knew Decepticons were bad, but changing a life like that? How many Autobots were turned into Decepticons?"

"We counted it several times," Thundercracker piped up, "and we came to an estimate of 25,000 that have gone into Rebirth. And there's more that come with each millennium."

Optimus ran his fingers through his hair and walked off a couple feet away, muttering to himself.

"I wish Megatron was still alive!" Jazz said angrily.

"What, why?" Ironhide said.

"So I can kill 'im! Dat's why!"

"Thundercracker, Skywarp," Soundwave said at last. "Are your names located in the list?"

"Yep. Take a good long look, brainiac," Skywarp said and handed him the computer.

"I see…" He stared typing names to search through the list and every Decepticon name he typed had appeared on the list. Somehow, Starscream's name didn't appear on the Rebirth list.

Thundercracker stood up and walked over to Optimus. "Sir, we're sorry we had to come to you like this."

"There was no other way for you to tell us. Either way you chose it would have still been grave news to me and the others… Is it true you claim to be an Autobot?"

"I swear, sir. I looked at my name on the list for two mega cycles just to be sure of it. Skywarp and I are a part of your army, but only if you can accept us."

The brown-haired man looked at him. "We'll need to get you some brands then, won't we, comrade?" he smiled.


	17. Time to Think

Sorry for the waiting. Lately I haven't had much inspiration for story writing… But I found a trick to it. If I read the reviews of the story then somehow it sparks me up to make another chapter. That's how supportive you guys are, especially after the crappy time I've just had. All stories were saved on a flash drive. I had my laptop on the edge of the bed, which was clearly a bad idea when my foot had a muscle spasm. The laptop fell and the flash drive broke in half… So smiles and hugs; this chapter is for you!

Oh, and someone had asked why Starscream wasn't on the list, so this'll clear it up for ya.

* * *

Chapter XVII

Skywarp and Thundercracker walked into the med bay, chuckling at the simple technology the humans had offered the Autobots.

"Is this what the humans call Stone Age?" Skywarp laughed.

"This is what they could offer," Ratchet glared. "If we even try to upgrade anything to our level, it'll overload."

"That's weak!"

Ratchet growled and reached into a drawer. He took out two stickers and handed them to the Seekers. "Put them over your brands."

Thundercracker looked at the sticker: An Autobot symbol.

"You guys don't brand?" he asked.

"Of course not. You brand bulls, not Cybertronians."

The Seeker's wings seemed to slump and he put the sticker over his Decepticon branding. Skywarp, on the other hand, was having second thoughts. He had been in the Decepticon ranks for so long that he was not sure if he should switch so suddenly. But he knew he was nothing without Thundercracker, and he didn't want to go back to that annoying excuse of a wingmate Starscream. If he went on his own, what could he do? So he placed the sticker over his emblem and stared at it. Red was definitely not his best color.

"Perfect. Now go meet with Optimus Prime. We're going to leave in a little while to confirm you two as Autobots to the Senate. Keep your patience with them."

"Which mean don't be a smart aft, Skywarp," Thundercracker said, looking at his purple look-alike. The latter rolled his optics and walked out. Autobot or Decepticon, you can not expect someone to change how they act. Especially Skywarp. It was in his programming to be a nuisance.

Soundwave sat alone outside of the city limits, under the shade of a tree. Ravage was the only one who sat next to him, knowing there was something on his master's mind. He decided not to talk first so it would not seem that he was probing or even being a little nosy. All he did was stare up at the ex-Decepticon, waiting for him to speak out. Even Soundwave knew this, because of that bond he shared with his cassettes. Not the bond they had that was dubbed as telepathic, but the one that was more organic; a bond of hearts.

"Do you remember if Barricade was on the list?" Soundwave said, breaking the maddening silence.

_There were too many names that I didn't have time to check over _the feline replied. _Why?_

"I remember Barricade was an Autobot. He also arrived with the others to Earth a few months ago. Could he still be here?"

_Either that or he's up there near the moon with Starscream._

"If he was still there, and was on the list, he would have come with the Seekers."

_Then he's either here or dead._

Soundwave looked down. He tried to ignore the thought that his old sparring partner could be dead. Of course the battle at Mission City, as told by Ironhide, was a violent one. Every Decepticon present had died except for Starscream, who had managed to flee. Yesterday, when he had asked if he had seen Barricade, the grunt answered with a blunt no. Soundwave had even asked a senator on his vacation if there was anything about Barricade, even if he was a hostage somewhere. The senator, seeming very angry, said no as well and not to call him again. Thinking he might have been hiding something, Soundwave hacked into the government's mainframe last night. Optimus Prime had gotten a call from the entire legislative branch about it and tried for hours to apologize. After the chaos ended, he sent Soundwave out on patrol in case Starscream or his new henchmen decided to show up again. Now the blue officer was left so bored he was thinking too much.

"He cannot be dead," Soundwave mumbled. "I know Barricade. He is not one to die so easily."

.

"Ah…Ahh…! Achoo!"

"Are you okay, Mr. Barricade?"

The giant mechanical man looked down at the small girl sitting on the ground. She finally woke up from her coma two days ago and already she had such respect for him. He might have been the one to save her life, but to call him as if he was some kind of friend? What could come from humans next?

"Yeah, I'm fine, Harriet," he muttered. "It was just a sneeze."

"My big brother told me sometimes when you sneeze someone's talking about you."

"That's a bunch of bull slag you humans made up!" Six Speed commented. "A sneeze is when some germ gets in your olfactory sensors and tries to blow it back out! Honestly, you're so stupid."

"Am not!"

"Are to!"

"Six Speed?" Barricade groaned. "I hate to interrupt your heated debate, but could you just let the girl have some imagination while she's still got it?"

"Oh, so you're taking her side?" the Mini-con hissed, glaring at his master. "If she keeps saying crap like that she'll never be smart!"

"I have a B in school, thanks," Harriet snapped.

"B stands for bonehead."

To Barricade, if the little girl could turn into some kind of wild thing unknown by nature, she would have ripped off Six Speed's head if he did not pick him up in time. He gave him a few scowls in Cybertronian, to protect little Harriet's ears from gathering such rude insults and spread them. Six Speed only crossed his arms and looked down, being rebellious.

"Sometimes I don't feel like your partner," Barricade growled. "I feel like your fathering unit."

He put him back down. Harriet walked over next to the Mini-con and gazed.

"I'm sorry," she said.

"For what?" he spat.

"For fighting. My mom told me you should apologize after you fight."

Barricade chuckled, sounding more like thunder than an actual laugh.

"I guess that means you have to say sorry, too."

"I don't have to apologize to her! I did nothing wrong!"

The police car stared at him, not taking his answer.

"Fine…" Six Speed looked at the short girl. It was strange, but he stared to get a feeling inside him. Did humans have some kind of power over robots that he did not know about? He got rid of the thought, knowing it was ridiculous to even believe such fragile creatures could have such control. "Sorry."

Harriet smiled. Of all gestures to do, she had to smile! The small robot cursed at himself when he felt that little feeling he had towards the girl grow a bit. It was bad enough he had to take care of the damned creature. Now he had to love it too?

"Mr. Barricade? I'm hungry," the little human said. He automatically froze.

He had no human money to speak of, and obviously does not carry human food around in subspace. He knew he did not want to give her garbage out of the dumpster to eat, that would seem cruel. There was also the option of pretending to be a beggar, but that would cause too much humiliation to him (as if protecting a human was not embarrassing enough).

As if reading his mind, Six-Speed said "Want me to go mug someone?"

"Well, I-" Barricade stopped himself to consider it. Six-Speed was a natural at thievery; quick and thorough. "Find someplace dark. And don't take too long."

Six-Speed smirked, happy that he did not have to completely let go his Decepticon expectation, and ran away. Harriet sat down on a cement block.

"Do you have any games?" she asked. Barricade just looked at her in response. "Never mind…"

The giant police car laid down and looked up at the orange sky. He made sure to drive three miles radii clear of civilization, even interstate highways. He had lived around others his entire life, and being out in the open it felt so different. He almost cursed at himself knowing that whatever this feeling was it was changing him, making him… human.

No! Primus Above, not human! There was no way a robot could be turning into a human, physically or mentally. It was impossible!

…Still.

.

"So they found out, did they?" the snake of a temporary leader grinned.

"Are you talking to yourself again?" Bombshell groaned. "That's strange even by my standards."

"I'm talking about Thundercracker and Skywarp," Starscream said, glaring at him. "They found out about the Rebirth project."

"Never heard of it," Kickback mumbled, crushing an empty energon cube against his head.

"That's because you three weren't even there when it was made." He typed on the keyboard to try and track his brethren. But a large red word stretched across the screen, in Cybertronian letters that were translated as "denied." Starscream slammed his fist on the board, cursing to his god, realizing they may have already swapped over to enemy lines. "Those traitors…"

Suddenly he felt nostalgic. He remembered when he had met that overgrown, spiked mech called Megatron. He remembered said mech giving him a position as a scientist, so he had quit at Iacon and followed Megatron over to the other side of the planet. He built the Rebirth machine, not knowing its purpose. He hacked into files, searching for the reason this monstrosity was built. Reading through those files he felt a sense of admiration for Megatron's audacity, if not bravery, for rebelling Iacon. Later the admiration turned into disapproval, thinking the mech was too old to run an entire army. He would follow along with this insanity and wait for the perfect moment to take over.

And the perfect moment turned out to be some small, insignificant, hormonally raged teenage boy destroying the very life force of Megatron and the All Spark along with it. Such an outrageous fool! To be killed by someone weaker than him, smaller than him. The "glorious and undefeatable Lord Megatron" went against his own rule. Starscream almost laughed at it.

"So what do we do now, boss?" Bombshell said, breaking through the Seeker's thoughts.

"Give me time to think…"

xXx

So what have we learned so far? We found out that Autobots don't brand, Barricade's a babysitter, Six Speed won't admit that Harriet's adorable, and Starscream is the genius behind Rebirth. :O


End file.
